Auntie Em
by Kirby's Cowgirl
Summary: Cady and Matthias become unlikely allies. To be continued...? I hope I didn't offend anyone with this. My husband is part Seminole and being called an "Injun" is not considered a slur in this family.
1. Chapter 1

Copyright 11/15 by Kirby's Cowgirl

No copyright infringement intended, to Craig Johnson or Netflix

Thanks to Mr. Johnson for creating this wonderful series, and Netflix for picking it up after A & E was stupid enough to cancel it

Auntie Em

Matthias pulled the patrol car over next to the disabled truck. "Since when can't you change a tire?" he called to his Aunt, who was sitting in the shade on a camp stool, holding her phone.

"Since the lug nuts appear to be rusted on!" she retorted, getting to her feet. "I can't get a cell signal either."

He picked up the lug wrench, and she shook her head at him. "Matty, just call me a tow truck. I don't want you hurting yourself."

The look he gave her would have vaporized anyone else, but then he saw what she meant. He couldn't budge the nuts either. "I should have some WD 40 in the trunk." He said.

She returned with the can and sprayed a liberal amount . "Matty, really, I know you have things to do -"

"To protect and to serve." He interrupted her, as he got the first nut loose.

"How did we ever get along without this stuff?" She had once given his Uncle a five gallon bucket of it for Christmas, and it was a family joke.

Matty pulled the flat off and replaced it with the spare. "What are you doing out this way, anyway?" he asked. He thought she wasn't going to answer him. "Got a boyfriend?" he teased. His Uncle had been dead for five long years, and he'd never even considered the possibility of her remarrying.

"The few men that are in my age range only want 25 year old runway models." She looked like she might start crying, and that was so unlike her, it angered him.

"Well they're idiots."

"Matty, are you sick?" she looked at him strangely. Most of the folks on the Rez had been appalled when his Uncle Robert had married a _white woman_ , and twelve year old Matthias had tried to make her life hell. He had nicknamed her "Auntie Em", and she didn't know how many spankings he'd gotten from his father, Tommy, _and_ her new husband. He had been a spoiled brat when she'd met him. He certainly hadn't liked that she was a better rider than he was, a good hand with livestock, and a competent markswoman.

When Matty was fifteen, his father had been killed trying to break up a knife fight in a bar. No one had ever thought that Matty might follow in his father's footsteps and be a tribal policeman. In fact Em had been worried for awhile that he might end up in prison.

"There's Lucian?" Matthias suggested.

"That old buzzard!" the fire in her eyes was back, and whatever was bothering her seemed forgotten. She swatted him.

"What _are_ you doing out here?" he asked as he tossed the flat tire and tools in the bed of the pick up.

"I left the new Hector a donation."

"You did _what?"_ he looked at her, instantly furious. "If anyone is bothering you, you tell _me_. If it's off the Rez, Walt Longmire will handle it." And then, he couldn't believe that he'd said it.

"Matty, honey!" she grabbed him and hugged him. "I left the person who's taken on Hector's job some gas money. I always helped Hector, why shouldn't I help him too?" The fact that she'd written the _new_ Hector a note, was none of Matty's business. She'd been in the process of turning around to retrieve it when she'd noticed the flat. She had no business complaining about anything in her life. She was blessed, compared to many people on the Rez, and she knew it.

"Auntie Em!" he looked at her, speechless. His Aunt, pillar of the community that she was, had aided a known criminal. Hector had on occasion, done some things that had landed him prison time.

"There are too many gray areas in the law, Matty. Hector never did anything that didn't need doing. Our people, _our_ people _need_ him."

"Try and stay out of trouble, Auntie Em." He closed the truck door after her.

"Your Mom's worried about you." She said suddenly. "You should drop by some night and have dinner. You know she always makes enough food to feed an Army."

Matty knew just what she was worried about. She was afraid that since the casino had opened, and more and more people poured thru the county daily, that some party girl might decide it would be fun to tame a "red man."

"Your hair looks nice." He said, to change the subject. She had a new stylish cut. As long as he'd known her, she'd worn her hair in a single braid down her back, just the way his Mom did.

"Your Mom got the same cut." At the look on his face, she started laughing. "Ruby's granddaughter opened a new salon. We wanted to give her some business."

It took him a few minutes to remember that Ruby worked in the sheriff's office. She and his Mom and Em had been friends for years. "I'll try and get over to see Mom next week."

"Thanks for changing my tire, Matty. It was good to see you." She leaned thru the door, and hugged him.

"Take care of yourself, Auntie Em." He watched her drive away, noting that the worry was back in her face. Well, whatever was wrong, she wasn't going to talk to _him_ about it.

Several evenings later ….

"Can I get you anything else, ma'am?" Cady asked the older lady. She had been sitting at a back table for almost an hour, playing with a cheeseburger. Viv, the other part time waitress, had already gone home.

"I'm sorry, honey." The woman said. "I've been taking up your table for too long." She suddenly seemed to realize that most of the bar had cleared out. Then she took another look. "Cady Longmire?"

Cady still didn't know who she was, but she knew she should have. "I'm sorry -" she started.

"You and Smokey were some of my star pupils." Her eyes twinkled.

"Aunt Emma." Cady leaned down and hugged her. "I _never_ thought you would cut your hair! You look great!"

"So do you, honey." Emma hugged her back, wondering why in the world that Matty couldn't find a nice girl like this to settle down with. And then she remembered that Cady's boyfriend had been killed. "I'm sorry about Branch." She said carefully.

Cady tried to shrug, but her eyes filled with tears. "We had broken up, but it still hurts. Thank you for the note you sent me."

Emma patted her hand. "I'm sorry, I just don't do funerals anymore. It's never going to quit hurting, but after awhile, you just start to remember the good things."

Cady sat down and wiped her eyes. "Are you still coaching the rodeo team?" she noticed Henry coming out of the kitchen, drying his hands on his apron.

"They decided they wanted someone younger who was still competing." She shrugged, but Cady knew her well enough to know that her feelings had been hurt over it. "I've got enough to do with the ranch as it is."

"You should hit up some jackpots and make them eat your dust." Cady declared. "I'll go with you."

Emma laughed. "Do you still ride?"

"Not so much anymore. I still have Smokey though. He's twenty seven, and there'll never be another horse like him."

"No, you two were special. It's like that sometimes."

"I can borrow a horse from Dad. And his trailer too, if you want?" Cady offered.

"Emma! I didn't recognize you without your braid." Henry said, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Matty said the same thing, more or less." She reached and squeezed his hand. "It's good to see you, Standing Bear. You still make the best cheeseburgers in the county. And Hector made the best fry bread." A shadow crossed her face for just a minute.

"They replaced Emma as the rodeo coach." Cady turned to Henry. "Did you know that?"

"I thought it was your decision." Henry said, and then realized that it hadn't been.

"I told her we should go to some jackpots and let her win all their money."

"Do you have a competition horse now, Emma?" Henry asked. He knew she had many ranch horses, but a highly trained barrel horse was an entirely different kind of animal.

"I have three." Emma actually laughed. "I have to do something with my time. I compete against myself, and Rose and Ruby time me. Rose is a really good rider herself, but she never wanted to compete. We have a good time and then we go and eat pizza."

"I don't know who Rose is?" Cady said.

"Matthias's Mom."

"Matthias has a _mother?"_

Emma laughed. "He has improved a little with age, Cady, though he can still be _difficult."_

"I say all of you girls should go to the jackpot and clean them out." Henry declared. "Next Saturday night, what about it? Cady, I'll give you the evening off."

"I'm game. But I'll probably fall off and embarrass Emma."

After Henry had closed the bar, he went upstairs and sorted thru his latest batch of Hector letters. He had no idea that Hector had ever cooked for Emma, but suddenly it made sense. There had been times when he knew Hector was hurt and he would disappear for weeks at a time. He had to have been holed up at Emma's ranch. All of her ranch hands had been with her for over twenty years, and they were fiercely loyal to her. They would never have turned Hector in. Matthias would probably have blown a gasket if he had had any idea of what his Aunt had been up to.

He sighed and picked up a letter. He'd done what he could with the last batch. If Deana hadn't run off with his money, he could have helped a lot more people.

" _Dear Hector,_

 _My name is Linda Falling Rain and I'm sure you know my grandson, Charlie. My government money only goes so far, and he wants a new video game. He is such a good boy and doesn't ask for much. Could you loan me $49.95? I will pay you back, Hector, it's just that with all Charlie's hospital bills, there's not anything left over."_

Linda Falling Rain was on social security, and fiercely independent. She would never ask for anything for herself, but Charlie was a different matter. Henry knew the child had a difficult time. Charlie's parents had been killed in an auto accident that left him a paraplegic in a wheelchair. For a child who had been active in sports and lived to be outdoors, it was a daunting blow.

Henry sighed. He would go back down to his office to his computer and order the game online. As soon as he read one more letter. He opened the next envelope, and a fifty dollar bill fell in his lap.

" _Dear Hector,_

 _Here's a little gas money to help you in all you do. Our people need you. You mean so much to so many who have no hope._

 _You have no idea how much I miss you. You were so easy to talk to, and I appreciated all our conversations and your wisdom. You were always so kind to me. Our chats over fry bread and coffee were the only thing that kept me going for awhile, and I think you knew that."_

The letter had to be from Emma. She was the only person he knew that could afford to donate that kind of money. Henry sighed. Well, now he had the money to pay for Charlie's video game, without adding to his already overburdened credit card. Why hadn't he realized how lonely Emma was? He'd tasted Hector's fry bread, and he agreed that the man had a magic touch. Well, he would close the bar next Saturday afternoon, and make sure that the girls went to that barrel racing jackpot. What was Malachi going to do, fire him?

And he could take all of them out for pizza later. Matthias would probably blow up if he knew that Henry had taken his _Aunt and his Mother_ out to dinner. It would be all over the Rez in an hour. Cell phones were almost as fast as drums.He could make sure that all the ladies had a nice time and got home safely, he reflected. He'd just drifted into a relationship with Deana, and that had cost him every penny that he had. He'd never even thought of Emma in that way. She was lonely. He _was_ lonely. Scratching his head, he went back downstairs to order Charlie's video game.

There was an SUV stopped, halfway off the road. Matthias pulled the patrol car over behind it, and turned his flashing lights on. He didn't recognize the vehicle. One hand on his gun, he approached.

"I'm sorry, officer." The woman rolled her window down. "Could you please call me a tow truck? I can't get a cell signal." Then she actually looked at him. "Matthias?" She hadn't seen him in - she couldn't remember when.

"Cady Longmire." He couldn't believe how good she looked. He hadn't seen her in a _very_ long time, though they'd grown up and gone to school together. They just looked at each other for what seemed like minutes. Suddenly Matthias said, "Auntie Em couldn't get a signal out here last week either. Come sit in the patrol car with me until the tow truck gets here. I know you're cold."

He saw how she was shivering when she got out of her vehicle, and wordlessly handed her his jacket from the passenger side of his car. He waited until she was seated before he called for a tow truck.

"Thanks, Matty." She said, once the heat had kicked in. " I forgot how fast it gets cold out here. Dad would be really mad at me."

"What are you doing out this way?"

"I had an appointment with Mary Kill Dee, but when I got out to her place no one was there."

"Mary has been dead for three months." Matthias said, trying to keep the anger from his voice. Someone had tricked her into coming out here.

"Well I guess that's why she wasn't there then." Cady said, and then her voice broke. "I'm going to have to give Nighthorse his money back. I was so excited about being help to help the people. I've had one person approach me in six weeks, and that was an argument over water rights. No one trusts me because I'm white."

"The Boulins and the Red Wings have been fighting over water for half a century." Matthias said. "And I'm sorry. _I_ trust you. But Malachi did a lot of damage to both our people. Don't give up."

They were quiet for awhile, then Cady said, "Do you remember when the Boulins stole the donkey from the church nativity scene?"

"I remember Lucian trying to pin it on me."

"He didn't?"

"He did." Matthias said, still angry. And then he thumped the dash with his hand. "I told Aunt Emma she should go out with him."

"That old buzzard! Matty, you didn't!"

"Not one of my finer moments. She's lonely." Matthias looked at her. "I hear that you girls cleaned up at the jackpot last weekend."

"Yeah." Cady grinned at him. "I can't believe that your Mom never competed. She's _really_ good."

"Yeah, that seventy five dollars that she won really impressed her. I think she and Emma may start going every weekend."

"And that will really burn those girls that thought Emma was too old to teach them anything."

"Yeah." Matty grinned back at her. He had always thought that Cady had really pretty eyes. In fact, back in a different lifetime, he'd kissed her on a dare. She'd promptly busted his lip. She'd been braids and braces back then, and he'd been a snotty kid - he wondered if she'd slug him if he tried to kiss her now.

"What are the Boulins up to now, anyway?"

"Arlen's dead. Arlo drives one of Benson's tow trucks."

He saw the shadow cross her face. She did not want to get in the truck with Arlo. "Benson's got two women who work for him. If Arlo's working, I'll take you home."

"Thank you." Cady said, the relief on her face evident.

It was Arlo who got out of the tow truck, and Matthias put out a hand to stop Cady when she would have gone to meet him. "You leave the keys in it?"

She nodded. "I've got my purse. There's nothing else I need." She'd never been afraid of Arlen, but most of the girls steered clear of Arlo. He had a mean streak a mile wide.

"Thank you, Matthias." Cady said again, when he got back in the patrol car after Arlo had left with her car. "Have you had dinner?"

"What?"

"Dinner. The meal people eat, usually after sundown. You do eat, don't you?"

"Your Dad will blow up if anyone sees us together."

"My Dad will appreciate that you helped me when I was broken down in the middle of nowhere and were enough of a gentleman to not make me ride in the truck with Arlo." Cady shot back. "And I'm grown. I make my own decisions."

"I'd forgotten what a temper you have." Matthias said. "Where do you want to eat?"

"That pizza we had last weekend was really good." Then she looked at him. "Are you on duty? I didn't even think -"

"I'm off tonight." He hesitated. "Cady, I'll help you. You're a good lawyer, and Nighthorse was right. The people need you. One condition though." When she raised an eyebrow at him. "You check with Henry or me and make sure anyone who approaches you is legitimate."

"Matty -"

"This could have gotten really ugly tonight and you know it."

"I have a gun, and I will use it."

"Malachi still has a lot of influence on the Rez. I don't want you out here alone." When she started to protest, "I will tell your Dad."

Cady clamped her mouth shut and glared at him. He knew if she hadn't been trapped in the car with him that he would have gotten cussed out.

"It would kill Emma and Ruby if anything happened to you." It was true, both of them considered her a daughter. _And it would really bother him too._ He hadn't thought about Cady in years. What was wrong with him?

"I'm sorry, Matty." She looked as if she was going to start crying again. "You're right. I'm just tired."

He reached over and squeezed her hand, and she folded her fingers around his, and held on.

Nothing could ever come of him and Cady Longmire. _Could it?_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Coffee." Vic said, stumbling into the kitchen. "I smell coffee." She had no idea what time it was, it wasn't daylight yet. She just knew she had to have some caffeine, preferably with an intravenous drip. And a _long_ hot shower.

She froze when she saw _Mathias_ sitting at the kitchen table with Cady. All she had on was a very worn out t-shirt of her ex-husband's, which exposed a heck of a lot more than it covered.

Mathias checked her out, and grinned. He reached and poured her a cup. "Cream?"

"Ah, no, thanks." Vic stammered, horrified, looking at Cady in shock as she grabbed the cup from his hand and started to flee.

"Nice legs, Vic." Mathias said, and chuckled. Cady swatted him in the head.

Vic fled into the bathroom in sheer panic. What in the hell was Mathias doing in Cady's house in the middle of the night? Surely they hadn't… _They hadn't hooked up. They couldn't have._ _Walt would have a stroke. She had to tell him, didn't she?_

And, damn, but _Mathias was hot!_ He had on a black t-shirt and tight jeans. Why did such a jackass have to have such a nice body?

Why on earth couldn't it have been _Walt_ in the kitchen!

Mathias wondered what he was doing as he stopped in the hallway of the assisted living. "Excuse me, Lucian?" The old reprobate was drinking coffee and reading the newspaper, and he shot Mathias an annoyed look over the top of his glasses.

"I need to ask a favor." The annoyed look changed to shock. "For Cady. _Not me."_ " _I am not going to play that old goat's games."_ Mathias told himself, and he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

"Well," Lucian said, considering, "Come in and have some coffee."

"No thanks." He just wanted this over and done with. "Poor Cady's about to give up. She wants to give Nighthorse his money back and forget the whole deal. I was hoping you knew somebody on the Rez that needs help that we could give a push in her direction."

Lucian's expression had turned to shock, and he just stared at Mathias.

" Lucian, this has nothing to do with _me._ Cady needs some help." No response. "Well, dammit, he'd _tried."_ Mathias thought. The old goat really _was_ heartless.

"Linda Falling Rain."

" _Shit!"_ Mathias felt like a damn fool. He had been racking his brain since he left Cady earlier and hadn't been able to come up with a single person.

Lucian leaned over and poured him a cup of coffee and pointed to the empty chair opposite him. "Sometimes the most obvious is the easiest overlooked. I've been at this a hell of a lot longer than you have."

Mathias sat down, cautiously sipped the coffee, and decided that it was good. "Thank you. "

"There's some of your Mama's strawberry pie in the fridge if you want some."

"I like peach." Matty said.

"Hell, hand it to me, then. When you get to be my age, you may not make it 'til lunch."

Mathias retrieved the pie, and a fork.

"Linda can't read. I think she's what they call dyslexic. Course back when I was comin' up, they just called you _stupid._ I doubt she's getting any extra money for keeping Charlie. Now that kid, he's a damn genius."

Mathias just sipped his coffee and listened. Lucian was a damn well of information if he decided he'd share with you.

"He plays that Star Wars chess -"

"What?" Mathias asked, completely lost.

"That chess on levels." Lucian gestured with his hands. "The pointed ear man plays it."

"Spock." Mathias said, understanding now. "That's Star Trek. Spock plays 3D chess."

"Whatever. I can't keep 'em apart. Charlie loves those shows. Linda drops him off here after his Doctor's appointments so she can shop. He plays on the internet and stuffs himself with ice cream -" Lucian stopped, looked disgruntled. "I should have had you get me some ice cream to go on this."

Mathias tried not to grin. "He uses the internet at my sister Jeanne's." He and his brother in law, Lane, had built a wheelchair ramp for the kid. Charlie had always spent a lot of time at their home, but before his accident, he'd tagged around after Lane at the bull pens.

"There was something wrong with one of Charlie's games and he e-mailed them and told them how to fix it. They offered him some kind of job, said it'd have to be with his parent's permission and after school and all. About killed him to have to turn it down. I told him I'd have internet run out to their house and he could pay me back. He said Lane had already tried to get them some service, but something about that canyon they live in, they can't get a signal. Linda doesn't even have a phone."

Mathias pulled a pad from his pocket. "So Linda's not getting any extra social security for raising Charlie. I'll get Cady on that right away."

"I tried to help Linda on that already and she about bit my head off. She's always been embarrassed that she can't read. Tell Cady she'll have to broach everything that _it's for Charlie_."

"Okay, will do."

"I want that kid to go to college. If I get any money from Barlow -" Lucian put down his fork and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Lucian." Mathias said, appalled. He should have given his condolences before he _even_ asked for help. Even though he'd hated Branch's guts, nobody deserved to die the way he had.

Lucian blinked at the tears that started.

"I'll go get you some ice cream." Mathias said, trying to give him a few minutes of privacy to get himself under control.

"Get yourself some too." Lucian managed, with just a slight waver in his voice.

Matty took his time with the ice cream and when he got back, Lucian was blowing his nose.

"Linda didn't get a cent of insurance money either. She and Charlie are barely making it. Tell Cady after she gets that straightened out - that kid that stays at your sister's after school, what's her name?"

"Millicent?"

"Yeah. She's a little genius too. Her Daddy ditched her and her Mama. Her poor Mama's been working at the truck stop and trying to get a job at the casino with some benefits. That boy needs his ass nailed to the wall for back child support." Lucian dipped a spoonful of ice cream. "Don't you tell your sister that I told you this." He chuckled. "She come in here mad as hell and asked me if I thought the _new_ Hector could track him down and kick his butt."

"What's wrong with that?"

"She thinks Emma took over Hector's job, and she's using her ranch hands as "enforcers."

Mathias nearly choked on his ice cream. " _What?"_ Emma _was_ opinionated as hell. And it was true that any of her ranch hands would happily have walked thru hell bare footed for her. But she wasn't - She couldn't be. He was going to have to sit down and have a long heart to heart talk with his Aunt. Even though he was almost positive that Henry Standing Bear was the new "Hector." Maybe Emma was helping _him!_ There was no way he was sharing any of that with Lucian.

"Emma just needs a husband. She still misses Robert something fierce."

"I volunteered you." Mathias grinned at him.

Lucian gave him a dirty look. "Now, I like Emma a lot. She and Rose and Ruby and I go out to eat a couple times a month. Anymore than that, Emma and I would kill each other."

"You should have married the lawyer." Mathias said, without missing a beat.

Lucian looked surprised. His affair with the lawyer lady had been the best kept _not secret_ of Absaroka County for years. "You think I didn't ask her?"

"Maybe you should ask her again."

Lucian shook his head, took a bite of his pie and ice cream, and savored it. "I ever tell you about the time your Daddy and me caught those bank robbers?"

"Only about two hundred times." Mathias watched Lucian and suddenly something clicked. "You saved the house for Rose." he said.

"Naw… That was Emma and Robert."

Mathias shook his head. "It was _you._ Everybody always speculated why you never spent any of the reward money -"

"I went to Cancun." Lucian interrupted him.

"You went to Cancun _once._ It _was_ you. I heard Aunt Emma crying one night because the bank wouldn't loan her and Uncle Robert any more money. Dad didn't have any insurance, and poor Mama had a nervous breakdown when he died. It would have finished her off if she'd lost her house."

Lucian finished the pie, laid his fork down, and looked at Mathias sternly. "Close the damn door. And if you repeat one word of this, I'll skin you alive."

Mathias pushed the door shut, and Lucian sighed. "I promised your Mama that I would never tell, and your Daddy's dead, and he can't tell anybody. You're grown now, you deserve to know how brave -"

" _Mama_ shot those bank robbers?"

Lucian nodded. "She was supposed to stay in the car. Thank god she didn't. They had the drop on Tommy and me and we never saw them."

"She stayed in bed for a week. They told Jeanne and me that she was upset because Dad almost got killed."

"She was mighty tore up. I tried to tell her -" Lucian's hands were shaking a little. "They would have killed Tommy and me like it was nothing. And then they would have raped and killed her. They tortured those poor bank tellers before they killed them." At the look on Mathias's face, "We kept that out of the report. It was bad enough for their families knowing they were dead. They didn't have to know what those poor girls went thru."

"She wouldn't take the reward money." Mathias said, knowing his Mother. She wouldn't have wanted anything to remind her of what had happened.

'Hell, she was so sorry and so ashamed, and just plain scared. I told Tommy that we could make it out that he shot them, I knew they needed the reward money. But he wouldn't do it. So we staged it like I shot them. _I've_ never had any problem sending scum to hell."

"So you took the money and you used it to help us after Dad died."

"Don't go ruining my reputation." Lucian said, and tried to glare at him.

"Mama doesn't know, does she?"

Lucian shook his head. "I told Robert to just tell her that Tommy's insurance policy paid off the house."

" And because Dad left us in such a mess, Uncle Robert made sure that Emma was taken care of."

"That was the only good thing that came of all that." Lucian shook the carafe and poured the last of the coffee in his cup. "Standing Bear courting your mama, or Emma?"

"What?" Mathias asked, totally caught off guard.

"Heard he took the two of them to dinner." Lucian grinned at him. "I just wondered which one he had designs on."

Vic was standing at Ruby's desk when Walt walked into the office. "Walt?" she started.

Ruby spoke over her," Cady called and said her car broke down on the Rez last night and Mathias drove her home so she wouldn't have to ride with Arlo Boulin."

The look on Walt's face turned to sheer rage.

"Oh, god." Vic thought. "I'm _so_ glad she interrupted me."

"Thank you, Mathias, for looking after my daughter." Ruby said to Walt, misunderstanding his anger. The phone rang again, and she picked it up, listened, then said, "Lucian," and gestured to Walt.

Walt went in his office and slammed the door so hard it nearly came off the hinges.

"Vic," Ruby scribbled, and tore a sheet off her notepad. "Find out everything you can about Arlo Boulin. When he was released from prison, how many women have been assaulted since he got out -"

As Vic reached to take the paper from her, Walt's door slammed back open. "VIC!" he bellowed. "I want EVERYTHING you can find on Arlo Boulin. I want to know when he got out and WHY. And how many women have been assaulted since he got out." The door shut.

"Oh." Ruby said, light dawning in her eyes.

"He's not mad about Mathias?" Vic whispered.

Ruby shook her head.

" _Oh!"_ Vic said, "Oh. _Good."_ She grabbed the paper and nearly tripped over her own feet getting to her computer.

A few minutes later, Ruby sat a glass of water, a cup of coffee, and some aspirin down in front of her.

"Thanks, Ruby." Vic said, scrubbing her face with her hands. " I must look pretty bad."

Ruby propped on the corner of her desk. "Cady and Mathias have known each other since they were children."

"Of course they have." Vic sighed. "Everybody in this county knows everybody else." She swallowed the aspirin and drained the water.

" There's no doubt that Mathias can be a jackass." Ruby whispered. "But he would never behave inappropriately with a lady, especially Cady. He might _think_ about it, but he would never disrespect his mother that way. Plus, he knows Emma and I would kill him."

" I didn't think -" Vic stopped. "It's none of my business."

"That's _right._ " Ruby reached and patted her shoulder. "It's none of _our_ business. And certainly none of Lucian's. I'm glad that Cady has decided to rejoin the living."

"God!" Vic said, as the information finally appeared on her computer screen. "How did this guy get out?"

"What is it, Lucian?" Walt barked into the phone.

"Mathias is trying to help Cady get some cases. Did you know that poor girl was ready to quit?"

"What?" Walt sat down, trying to get his mind off Boulin and listen to whatever Lucian was trying to tell him about Cady.

"Cady was fixing to give Nighthorse his money back and tell him nobody would let her help them because she's white. That girl has had enough, Walt. We need to help her." Lucian cleared his throat hard. "Now I ain't saying she's a quitter, but she lost her mama, and then Branch, too close together. And now she feels like a failure because she can't get her law practice up and running."

"Shit." Walt said. Why hadn't he seen? He and Cady hadn't been close in awhile. He sighed. "What can I do, Lucian?"

"Mathias informed me that he knows, _I_ know everything that goes on in this damn state, and I could make a list of folks that Cady could help but are too proud to ask her without a little prodding. You can do the same thing."

"Yeah, I can do that." Walt sighed. " Did you know Boulin got out?"

"I've been a little preoccupied lately, Walt."

"Shit, Lucian. I'm sorry." Walt said, realizing he had only spoken to him a few times since Branch had died.

"I'm sorry about the whole damn mess. What in the hell got into my brother that he would kill his own son -" Lucian cleared his throat hard again. "I didn't call you to talk about them. They're dead. Concentrate on Cady."

"I'll make a list, and I'll ask Ruby and Emma to help."

"You know, Walt, Martha always did like Mathias."

"Lucian, I'm sorry, I don't have time -"

"You idiot, I'm still talking about Cady! You acted like a jackass when you found out she was dating Branch."

"Yeah." Walt said quietly. "I did."

"So don't make the same damn mistake again. If you can't give her and Mathias, or her and whoever else she wants to date, your blessing, just keep your nose out of it."

"Cady and _Mathias?"_

"Cady was too good for Branch, and if you'd just let it alone, they'd have broken up anyway. Mathias is learning to be a good cop, and he's good to his family. You think on that, before you go and hurt your daughter again. Or you may just wind up old and alone like me. That's all I got to say." _Click._

Walt sat and held the phone for awhile before he hung it up. Trust Lucian to put the "cop" part of his respect for Mathias first. He'd thought the two of them hated each other. He'd thought a lot of things …

"VIC!" he yelled thru the door, "You got that information yet?"

Vic handed him the pages that she'd printed out, fearing that he was actually going to yank a handful of his hair out. "Shit. Shit. Shit." Walt jumped up and hurried into the other room. "Ruby, my files -"

Ruby handed him the key to the file room and Vic followed him inside, where he procured four dirty file boxes.

"Pizza or chili?" Ruby asked.

"I'm going to call Cady and ask if we can do this at her house. I'd just feel better - " Walt stopped. "Ruby, call Omar and ask him if it's ok for you and Vic to use the range this morning."

"Walter, that's not necessary -"

"I screwed up with Branch. I _am not_ going to screw this up."

Ruby saw the worry in his eyes, and nodded. "Ok. You want me to call Ferg in to man the phones?"

"Please."

"Can I shoot my own gun, or do I have to use Vic's?"

"Use yours. Take a rifle too, Vic. Tell Omar I want the targets and to bill me. _Not_ the county. I'll make chili if Cady says it's ok. Least I can do if you girls are gonna help me."

As they walked out to her truck, Vic said, "Ruby, do we need to swing by your house for you to get your gun?"

"I have a CCW."

"You _have a_ -" Vic stopped. She had always thought of Ruby as a grandmotherly type lady who baked pies and looked after everyone. Certainly not the kind of woman who carried a gun and knew how to use it.

"You're not going to get mad if I out shoot you, are you?"

"No." Vic said, shaking her head as she slid the rifle in the gun rack behind the seat. "Are you and Walt and Cady going to go thru all those files tonight?"

"I believe you're helping too, Vic." Ruby grinned at her. "But he can _order_ you to."

"And Walt will really, like, cook? Not open something out of a can?"

"Walter makes wonderful chili. He competed in the summer contest one year and did very well."

Walt dialed Cady's number, not sure exactly what to say.

"Dad! I think I've got a case!" Cady said, recognizing his ring tone. "Lucian's going to drive me out to the Rez this afternoon."

"That's great, honey. I, ah -"

"You're going to get all crazy because Arlo got out, aren't you?"

"Yeah." Walt sighed. "I sent Ruby out to the range with Vic."

"I have my pistol and Lucian said we were shooting and cleaning guns before our appointment with Linda."

Well, Lucian had appointed himself Cady's protector, which was good. He might be old as hell and a little slow, but he was still damn good with a gun. Walt figured Cady would pitch a fit when he told her that he intended to keep tabs on her. He'd thought he'd just get the neighbor kid to look after his stock and camp out on his daughter's couch for awhile.

"I was going to ask you if I could use your kitchen table tonight to go over some files. I'll make chili?"

"You're going to go over all of Arlo's files again, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Maybe if Vic and I find something, you can look at it from a legal standpoint -"

"You think you're going to keep Lucian out of this?" she laughed. "Sure, Dad. Get the key from Vic."

"Walter." Ruby came into his office and shut the door.

"I'm sorry about this morning."

"I'm talking. _You're listening."_ When Ruby got that look on her face, it was best to just shut the hell up and do what she wanted. Lucian had once made her so mad that she had walked out. It had taken a week of no phones and no computer access before he had gone to apologize, with a very expensive horse as a present.

"Walter, you acted worse than a jackass when you found out that Cady was dating Branch. You really hurt that girl. I'm not having you do that again. Martha would be appalled at you. _If_ Cady wants to date Mathias, it's nobody's business but theirs. You let it alone -"

"I already called Mathias and thanked him." Walt said, wondering if she was going to slap him for interrupting her. "And Lucian told me that if I don't stop acting like a jackass I'm going to wind up old and alone like him."

"Well." Ruby said, and smiled. "I may just have to bake that old jackass some of those cookies he likes." She handed him a stack of targets. "You need to work on Vic's rifle skills."

"You beat her with a pistol too?"

"Omar decided that was a tie. Oh, and I need thirty dollars from you." She held out her hand. "Omar said that he wanted "two of Miss Rose's pies. One strawberry and one surprise. To be delivered by a pretty lady. Not by -"

"My ugly ass." Walt finished for her. Typical "Omar speak." He added an extra ten. "Give Rose some gas money too."

"You know, Walter, Omar seemed quite taken with Vic. He's not a bad looking man himself, you know."

"Omar is too old for Vic."

"She didn't seem to think so." Ruby closed the door behind her, grinning. That "doctor woman" was not right for him. She knew that he and Vic loved each other in spite of everything, if only they would just sort it out.

When she left, Walt thought back to the snow storm from hell of two years ago that had caught all of them, except Emma, off guard. It had started snowing, just a few flakes, and Ruby had come in his office and asked if she could go home. Thirty minutes later, when she'd tried to leave, her car was stuck and he'd had to send Branch to take her home. By the time Branch got back an hour and a half later, there was seventeen inches on the ground. He'd stopped and picked up Lucian to man the phones for them. If Emma and her ranch hands hadn't already been out plowing the main roads, they'd never have made it back.

Walt had been worried about Martha, alone at the ranch, but all the phones were out. Cady had been on the road, shopping for a friend's upcoming wedding. They'd wiped out in the snow, and Ferg's Dad had picked them up in his truck and taken them to the nearest truck stop, where everyone had hunkered down.

Walt had tried to go home, but it had taken him hours to clear traffic accidents off the road. When he'd finally pulled into the ranch yard, there was a big four wheel drive truck that he didn't recognize in the yard. Rose and Mathias were playing cards with Martha. Rose had all manner of wonderful smelling things on the gas stove. The electricity, of course, was out.

Mathias had carried enough wood to last a week unto the porch, as well as tending to Walt's livestock. All the horses were in the barn. He'd even blanketed old Smokey.

They'd known Martha would need help and was not able to go out in the storm. Their whole family had pitched in. Mathias had driven Rose over in Lane's huge truck, that his brother in law no doubt needed himself. Mathias had had to go back to work, but Rose had stayed for a whole week. She'd gotten Martha to eat, and Walt thought he'd gained ten pounds.

"He even blanketed Smokey." Walt said to himself.

Walt and Ruby decided together that she didn't want to drive home alone in the dark, so Ruby took two file folders with her when she left the office, and Walt promised to save her some chili.

Vic popped the tab on a beer, and looked at Walt cooking. She could get used to this, she decided. She dug into the first of the files. By the time Cady and Lucian got in, the chili smelled wonderful, and she was starving.

They ate and talked about Cady's new case, she was really excited about it. Vic and Walt did the dishes while Cady looked over a few things they'd earmarked on Boulin's trial. Lucian went back over what Vic and Walt had already covered to see if they might have missed anything.

When Vic and Cady called it a night at 11:30, Lucian and Walt were still going strong. Vic figured that both of them would wind up crashing on Cady's couches, and that that had been Walt's intention all along. She didn't think he was going to let Cady stay alone at night, and Lucian had had too much to drink to drive home.

She felt like she'd just gone to sleep when her phone woke her, and she groggily answered it.

"Vic, is Walter still there with you?" Ruby's voice. "There's been a multi car accident with fatalities at the casino, and Mathias asked for some help."

"I'll get him, Ruby, hang on." Vic stumbled to her feet. After yesterday morning's fiasco with Mathias, she'd slept in some sweats. She did not intend for Lucian to see her in her sleep shirt.

"Walt!" she called.

"What's wrong?" he'd already sat up and turned on the light.

She handed him the phone, and listened to him tell Ruby they would be on the road in ten minutes.

"Just let me splash some water on my face." She said, and hurried to do that.

"Lucian, do you mind -" Walt started.

"I'll stay here with Cady. I may be old as hell, Walt, but I can still shoot the eye out of a snake, even when I've been drinking."

"I'll get his other eye." Cady said, coming out of her bedroom. "What's wrong, Dad? Can I help?"

He hugged her awkwardly as he shook his head. When he and Vic headed outside, he said, "Let's take your truck. Boulin should be busy working, but if he's not, he'll think I'm here if I leave mine."

"Ok." Vic said, tossing him the keys.

"Two of Mathias's deputies are tied up with a shooting . He can't exactly pull them off of that." Walt backed the truck out of the driveway, then said, "Shit! Oh shit. Vic, if you want to stay here -"

"Is it somebody I know?"

"There's a dead child. Ruby said Inez went to pieces, and Rick's not handling it well either."

Inez Rogers was the only female member of the tribal police. Vic had actually worked with her on a search for a missing child while Walt was being investigated by the FBI. She liked the woman. She didn't know who Rick was, but figured that he must have kids of his own. "I'm ok, Walt. Let's go."

"Some cops can't –" Walt stopped, tried again. "Some cops can't deal with dead children. No shame in that. It's a really bad part of the job."

"Mathias won't fire her, will he?"

"Of course not." Walt said, and then the expression on his face changed. Vic would bet that he and Mathias would be having some words if he did.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"What did you say to my Dad?" Ferg demanded as he strode into the office and confronted Walt.

"They're gone then?"

"He wouldn't even let Mom cook breakfast this morning. Said they'd eat on the road."

"Where's the dog?" Walt asked, without missing a beat.

"Dad put him right in the backseat of his new truck. He won't even let _me_ ride in it unless I sit on a towel! What's going on, Walt?"

"I believe it's called _circling the wagons."_ Ruby said, trying to calm Ferg down. He was _mad._ And not just mad, but _good and mad._

Suddenly Ferg seemed to deflate. "You thought Boulin would do something to my Mom." It was almost a whisper.

"I screwed up once already." Walt stopped, cleared his throat. "Hell, I may be over-reacting, but that's better than somebody getting killed. I'm not losing another member of my family."

Ferg opened his mouth, then shut it. Evidently the fact that Walt thought of his deputies as part of his _family_ was a foreign concept to him.

"I'd really appreciate it if you would go and stay out at Emma's until this blows over. I know it's a drive."

"I don't need a babysitter -"

Walt just spoke over him. "I wanted you to _be_ one. Beth flunked out of college, and she's home. There's Sally and Sissy and a couple other _pretty_ teenage girls who all think they're invincible. Easy targets for Boulin, if he gets a mind. Hell, anybody that thinks they can watch six teenagers - I couldn't even keep up with Cady!"

"You want me to protect _them?"_ Ferg looked incredulous.

"You're young. You're closer to their age. They're kids and they know things they would never tell their parents. Might be something important that they'd share with you. Wally said maybe you could help Beth. She's really torn up about flunking out. If that's _all_ that you do, that's _important."_

"Oh." Ferg said, looked confused, then, "Yeah, Walt, sure." Almost to himself, "She's wanted to be a vet, for like, forever."

"I sent the girls to the range yesterday. I thought you and I would go this weekend, unless we get too busy. " He turned to Ruby, "Tell me if I'm forgetting anything."

"Cady!" Ferg said.

"Lucian has appointed himself Cady's protector, and she won't be by herself until I've got Boulin back behind bars. She can just be mad as hell at me and never speak to me again. That's not _dead."_

"Walt, do you want me to call Mathias and ask if we can talk to those assault victims?" Vic asked.

"Call this afternoon and see if you can set something up for me tomorrow. He's still buried in paperwork from that accident. I told him I'd help him with that if he needed it."

"Ok." Vic said.

"I'll go grab some of my stuff and that way I can just go out to Emma's when I get off." Ferg stopped. "But it'll be late, I'll wake everybody up."

"The more traffic on that road, the better Ferg." Walt turned to Ruby, "Give Ferg the keys to the Charger."

"I don't want to drive Branch's car." Ferg said quietly.

"Your car will never make it out to Emma's." Walt said reasonably. "And _nobody_ wants to drive Branch's car. I can't exactly give it away."

Ferg left, holding the keys in his hand like they were something disgusting. Walt picked up his coat and hat and started out himself.

"Where are you going, Walter?" Ruby gave him a stern look.

"To check on my daughter's car."

"The garage is on the Rez." Vic reminded him.

"I am _going_ to check on my daughter's car." Walt repeated, and left. He was going to tell the mechanic not to fix it. As long as she had "no wheels", Cady was going to be a lot easier to keep track of. She would be furious when she found out, but what the hell… If he saw Boulin, well, he didn't know what he'd do if he saw Boulin.

"Ruby, did Walt really think that Mrs. Ferguson was in danger?"

"Ferg's Dad has been promising the poor woman a vacation for 30 years, and never taken her anywhere." Ruby sighed. "Whatever Walt told Ferg's Dad, at least it got them away from _here._ I think they'll be out of Boulin's range."

"He's just _all weird."_ Vic stopped, stricken. She should not have said that out loud.

"Walter is scared." Ruby stacked some of the files on her desk. "He thinks he's responsible for _everything._ "

"Branch wasn't his fault."

"Lucian is blaming himself too. He'll work it out eventually. But I'm not so sure about Walter."

" Walt can't watch Cady all the time."

"Boulin likes easy targets. That poor girl he killed -" Ruby stopped, sighed. "Cady's young and pretty. You and I are different -" At the look on Vic's face, she stopped. "I'm sorry, honey, that didn't come out right."

"You mean you and I are law enforcement." Vic said, suddenly, thinking she understood. "We wouldn't have any problem killing him. Cady, might - I don't know if Cady could shoot anybody."

"So we just need to do our best to see that she doesn't have to."

"Would you like to sit at a booth, Mrs. Nez?" Emma asked the elderly woman as she helped her into The Red Pony.

Mrs. Nez stopped suddenly, spying Darius sitting at the bar, a stack of paperwork in front of him. She took her cane and poked him in the back. Emma stifled a giggle.

"Watch it!" Darius called warningly, not looking up.

Mrs. Nez poked him again, HARD.

"What the hell! You want your ass kicked?" Darius jumped off the barstool and froze. "Grandma?" Emma had tried to pull her back, but the old lady stood her ground.

Mrs. Nez started jabbering away, and Darius shot Emma a " _how could you do this to me?"_ look.

Emma ignored him, as the old lady told Darius in no uncertain terms to help her up on a barstool.

"I'll just go sit over there so you can visit with Darius." Emma told her. "Do you want your usual?"

"How are you, Mrs. Nez?" Jess asked, as she approached the lady. "I heard Emma say "the usual". Would you like some onion rings or french fries to go with it?"

The old lady jabbered something and Jess looked to Emma for translation.

"Both." Emma said, and grinned. "I'll get my own coffee." She laughed silently at Darius, who was now being berated by his grandmother. She talked so fast that Emma could barely understand her.

"Emma that was really naughty of you." Henry whispered as Emma stepped into the kitchen.

"I couldn't resist." She hugged him, then thought that maybe she shouldn't have, but he hugged her back and smiled at her, so she decided it must have been ok.

She watched him for just a minute before she got her coffee and went to join some ladies that she knew.

"Here you are, Mrs. Nez." Jess carefully set the elderly woman's food in front of her. Henry had carefully sliced her chicken tenders into small bite size pieces, and she dove into her food. Darius reached to help himself to a French fry and she stabbed him with her fork.

"OW!" he pulled back and looked at the blood coming out of his hand.

All the women sitting at Emma's table laughed, and he shot them a disgusted look, which earned him some more jabbering from his Grandmother.

"Did she say what I thought she did?" the lady sitting next to Emma whispered.

"She told him that he needed to clean up his ways and stop hanging around with trash." Emma answered. At the woman's confused look, "She means Malachi."

Emma waited until Mrs. Nez had finished eating, before she went back to the bar. "Did you get enough to eat? I think we need to be heading home, the weather's fixing to turn bad."

Mrs. Nez told Emma that _Darius was taking her home._ That was evidently news to Darius, because he almost groaned out loud.

"Can I get you anything else, Mrs. Nez?" Jess asked politely. She knew to give the check to Emma, she always paid for the older woman's meals.

The old lady started rattling off a list, and Emma interrupted her. "You told me you didn't need any groceries!" she protested. "I could have gone to the store while you visited with Darius."

Darius shot her a " _Gee, thanks!"_ look, and Mrs. Nez continued with her list.

"Grandma, you can't eat all that food before it goes bad."

She pointed her fork at him and continued. Darius scratched his head. "We want six cheeseburgers with the works and two whole chocolate pies. To go." He said to Jess. He looked at Emma, grinning, "And grandma said for you to -"

"I _know_ what she said." Emma interrupted, looking appalled. "That's all, Jess, thanks."

Jess, wondering what was going on, took the order back to Henry.

Mrs. Nez cackled and patted Emma's arm.

"Yes, I know I'm not getting any younger." Emma agreed. "But do we have to discuss my lack of a love life in front of Darius?"

Darius laughed, but shut up when he got the evil eye from his Grandmother.

Henry carried the box of food from the kitchen himself. "I trust this is for Darius to eat while he's at your house." He said to Mrs. Nez, and listened to her politely while she explained that her neighbor's grandchildren were visiting. They had helped her with the sheep. She stopped and poked Darius. One of them had patched her roof. The girls appreciated her weaving. She poked Darius again, and told him to pay for her food.

Darius started to protest, noticed that she still had her fork in her hand, and coughed up the money .Henry went to get Darius his change, trying not to chuckle at the old lady's antics.

Mrs. Nez poked Darius's wallet with her fork and jabbered at him. He removed a bill, and she shook her fork at him warningly. He put it back and extracted another, and she nodded.

"It was nice to see you again, Mrs. Nez." Jess said as she came by with a tray of dirty dishes, and smiled at the old lady.

"This is for you, Jess." Darius handed her the folded hundred . At the shocked, stricken look on her face, he closed her fingers gently around the money. "I'm sorry your baby's sick. I'm sorry I'm a jackass. Please take it, or Grandma's liable to murder me before I get her home."

"I can't, really -"

Mrs. Nez reached over and patted her hand. "For your _baby."_ She said, in perfect English.

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you." Jess looked like she was going to burst into tears. "You be careful going home. The weather does look like it's going to turn bad."

Darius helped Mrs. Nez down from her stool, hoisted up the box of food, and when he turned to assist her, she told him pointedly that she'd been looking after herself long before he was born. Emma followed them to the door.

"It's starting to rain." She said, catching hold of Mrs. Nez's arm whether the old lady whacked her or not. She was not letting her fall down. "Darius, could you -"

"Grandma, stay inside and I'll pull the truck around." He gave Emma a grateful look.

"Since when did you become a waiter?" Malachi demanded, as he walked thru the parking lot.

"Shut up!" Darius said, and headed for his truck.

"Get out of my way, you old biddies." Malachi said, as he yanked the door open.

Mrs. Nez raised her cane at him, and Emma could swear that smoke started curling out of it. If the old lady hadn't been there, she'd have kicked Malachi a good one that he wouldn't forget any time soon.

Mrs. Nez muttered something that Emma didn't catch all of, but it seemed to concern the part of Malachi's anatomy that she was going to kick, falling off.

"I'm not afraid of your hocus pocus, Granny." Malachi folded his arms and glared at her. He was angry that neither she nor Emma had moved, and everyone in the bar had noticed.

Mrs. Nez kept muttering, gave Malachi a pointed glare, and then aimed her cane at his truck. Half a second later, a flash of lightning shot down and struck it. The truck rocked backward and burst into flames. She shook her finger at Malachi and made him back up with her cane. Darius stopped his truck, and got out, shaking his head. "Grandma, you should not have done that."

He and Emma helped the old lady inside the cab, and as they drove away, Emma ran and stuck her head back in the bar. "FIRE!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. A rancher's second worst fear after sick livestock. She grabbed the big fire extinguisher out of the back of her truck and ran to the fire.

Henry came out of the kitchen with another fire extinguisher. Two of the bar patrons, seeing what was going on, helped Jess unfurl the water hose to drag across the parking lot. A wall of rain hit, just then, and in a few seconds the fire was out. All that was left of Malachi's truck was a smoldering husk. Henry's old GMC, parked next to it, wasn't even scorched.

"Henry, you might want to move your truck in case it starts back." One of the men who had helped with the hose said.

"Mrs. Nez isn't mad at Henry." Emma said, and everybody looked around and laughed.

Malachi had just stood there and looked at his truck in shock. All of them were soaked to the skin from the rain.

When the phone rang in the tribal police office, Mathias gestured to Inez, who was on the other line, that he would get it. They were still wading thru the paperwork from the night before's accident. Walt had told him that he would assist him if he needed it, but Mathias had told the sheriff he would manage.

Most of the wrecks on the Rez were single vehicle accidents that sadly, usually involved livestock or alcohol. He had never had to work a multi car accident before. The fact that none of them had had any sleep was only complicating matters. He had had Nighthorse take Inez home, but he knew she hadn't gotten any rest either.

He gestured to get the other officers attention, and for them to be quiet, and punched the phone to "speaker."

"She blew up my truck!" Malachi was sputtering. "She _just_ blew up my truck!"

Inez put her hand over her mouth to cover up her laughter. She evidently knew what was coming.

"Malachi, have you been drinking?" Mathias asked, grinning himself.

"You arrest that old bitch. You go arrest her NOW! She can't go around threatening people like that and blowing stuff up!"

"You expect me to believe that 94 year old Mrs. Nez blew up your truck? What did she use?"

"Her cane."

Rick laughed out loud, and then hastily started coughing. Inez was giggling with her hand over her mouth.

"Malachi, I'm sure that your truck was just hit by lightning. It's storming pretty bad here." Mathias said, though as far as Mrs. Nez was concerned, he wouldn't have bet on it.

"Lightning that _she_ called down!"

"Where are you, Malachi? Did you call the fire department?" Mathias asked, suddenly realizing that was the first thing he should have said. Mrs. Nez going after Malachi was just too funny.

"Emma and Henry put the fire out. Then it rained."

"What exactly, were _you_ doing, while MY AUNT put out the fire?" Mathias barked. He ran his hand thru his hair. God, Emma was going to be the death of him yet. "Wait a minute, was this at The Red Pony?"

"Yeah."

"Then why the hell did you call me? That's off the Rez."

" I knew Longmire wouldn't do anything about it."

"Malachi, all you can do is call the insurance company."

"I'll get you for this, kid!"

"Did you just threaten a tribal police officer?"

"I'll get you, kid! I'll get you if it's the last thing I do. You and that damn Darius!" Malachi slammed the phone down.

"I'll call his parole officer." Rick said, grinning. "I do love Mrs. Nez."

"If only her baby charms worked that fast." Inez said, apparently not realizing she'd said it out loud, as she went back to her paperwork.

Mathias was exhausted. He'd been almost 36 hours without sleep. Of course, staying up all night talking to Cady had been his choice. He couldn't believe the two of them had that much to say to each other.

The accident of the night before - he sighed. Well, that was one of the reasons that Martha had campaigned so hard against the casino. More drunk drivers on the road. He felt nausea churning again, and clamped it back down. He hadn't gotten sick, but Inez and Rick had. And watching Inez direct traffic with tears pouring down her face had only increased his respect for the woman.

And Mrs. Nez… He laughed out loud. Most folks on the Rez thought she was a witch. Mathias didn't think she had any supernatural powers, she was just old as hell and had seen everything. Emma always called her before she called the vet when she had any sick livestock.

Another storm was building. If he hadn't promised to have dinner with his family, he would have just pulled the patrol car off the road and gone to sleep right there. He was so damn tired. But he'd promised Emma – He groaned. _He had to talk to his Aunt and straighten her out on a few things._ The only two men who had ever dared to defy Emma were dead, Robert, and her old ranch foreman, Hoyt, who had died of a heart attack the fall before, during round up. He thought that Robert had assigned the task of looking after Emma to Wally and Coop, two long time ranch hands; but neither of them would cross her.

And what in the hell was he going to do about Cady? He liked the woman. _Too damn much._ He'd certainly never lacked for female companionship over the years. What had he been doing with himself? Most of his friends were long married with kids. Some of them were long divorced too, with multiple families. Jeanne and Lane had married two weeks out of high school. But they were different. They'd decided that they were going to get married when they were in the first grade, which both of their families thought was _cute._ But they'd never outgrown each other. Heck, they'd never even dated anybody else.

The sky was starting to turn pink, which might mean it was fixing to storm like hell again. Or not. He wasn't a rancher, he'd never been able to read weather patterns the way Emma and Robert could. He did know Lane was moving some bulls tonight and probably needed some help. His "cowboy" skills weren't on par with Jeanne's, she rode and roped better than he did. He usually was the "ground man" who carried the gun. If things went south, far better a dead bull than injured people or horses.

 _If pink unicorns floated across the sky, he could marry Cady._ "What the hell!" Mathias blinked himself back awake, scrubbed his fist across his eyes. He had very nearly run in the ditch.

He gave a sigh of relief as he pulled into his sister's driveway. He could see Lane and Jeanne on horseback, two of the guys who helped out his brother in law working the chutes, and Rose, holding a shotgun. Well, the condition he was in, he didn't trust himself to drop a bull with one shot if he needed to. They had things under control.

He saw his niece Caitlin, playing in the fenced in yard, and stepped over. Lane had wired the gate shut so that the kids couldn't open it and wander out into danger. He didn't need to go distract the bulls when everything appeared to be going smoothly. "Hey squirt." He said, leaning down to scratch her new puppy's ears. "Where's Tommy?"

"He got to go sleep over at the Wolf's."

Mathias dimly remembered Lane telling him that this was Tommy's first sleepover, and he expected a call about 11 pm from him wanting to come home.

"Look, Uncle Matty." Caitlin said, pointing up. "Look!"

"What?" Mathias looked at the sky. Two perfect pink unicorns moved across the sky toward each other, bumped horns, and then playfully cantered off together.

"Did you see?"

"I did." Matty said, shaken. _There was no way in hell -_

Jeanne and Lane were heading for the barn with their horses and he heard them calling out "thank you's" and "good byes" to their neighbors.

"I thought you'd forgotten us." Rose stopped on the other side of the fence and looked at him worriedly.

"Sorry, Mom . I've just been busy." It was a lame excuse.

"Did you see the unicorns, Grandma?"

"I did." Rose assured her granddaughter, and decided that she didn't like the look on Matty's face. "You need to sit down before you _fall_ down." She told him.

"I'm ok." He said stubbornly.

"No, you're not. And if you frighten Caitlin, your sister will have your hide."

"Ok, Mom. We're goin' in the house, squirt." He reached down and caught her hand. "No puppy in the house 'til after dinner."

"Hi." Millicent looked up from the stove, from where she was stirring something that smelled like mutton stew.

"Hello, Miss Millicent. How are you?" Matty grinned at her and reached and pulled a braid teasingly.

"I did something bad." She whispered. "I think I'm in trouble." She looked like she was going to cry.

"Milly, honey, I can't imagine that you've _ever_ done anything bad."

He heard Rose coming in the front door, and Millicent looked at him, stricken, before she turned back to her stew. "Well, hell," Mathias thought. Milly wanted to tell _him_ what she'd done. Not Jeanne or Rose. It _must_ be something that she really thought was bad. He didn't get another chance to talk to her before his family poured in, and they all sat down to dinner with the usual teasing and laughter. He fell asleep at the table over his second bowl of mutton stew, and probably would have fallen in the floor if Lane hadn't caught him and helped him to the couch.

When he woke up, for some reason he thought he was at Cady's. Then he realized there was a pink stuffed unicorn resting on his head. Caitlin's latest obsession. He was at Jeanne's. He groaned, and struggled to sit up.

"Matty." Rose looked at him worriedly, and offered him a cup of coffee.

"Thanks, Mom." Mathias took a sip. "You didn't sit here all night, did you?"

She shook her head. "Come to my house and grab a shower while I make you some breakfast."

"I've got enough time to run home."

"You've got clothes at my house."

He did. He left a few of his things in the closet of his old room, and he knew he had a clean uniform there. "Ok. But no breakfast." He struggled to his feet, then sighed and sat back down to pull his boots on.

"Matty."

"I'm alright, Mom." He took her arm. "Just had a rough couple of days."

By the time Mathias had showered, Rose had made him a bacon and egg sandwich to go and fixed him a thermos of coffee. "Thanks, Mom." He hugged her. "This might even give me enough courage to go tangle with Emma."

"I guess you heard about the fire at The Red Pony."

"There were _men_ there who could have put the fire out." Matty said reasonably.

"Don't hurt Emma's feelings."

"I'll try not to." Mathias got in the patrol car, thinking he had enough to deal with without keeping Emma on the straight and narrow. He spotted a little girl walking up the road, and rolled the window down.

"Miss the bus?" he called, recognizing Millicent.

She nodded, tearfully.

"Hop in, Milli Vanilli. Nothing to cry about."

"I did something real bad, Uncle Matty." She said as she slid into the patrol car. "And Miss Linda is gonna lose her teeth."

Matty offered her a bite of his sandwich, which she declined. "You wrote a letter to Hector." He guessed.

"I said I was Miss Linda. And I asked him for a loan. I was gonna pay him back." She stopped, choked. "I was, really. I had enough after I got my check this week."

Charlie and Millicent had designed some kind of software program that Lane used to monitor his bulls. The two of them did most of Lane's bookkeeping, and Mathias figured that when they turned eighteen, he'd turn the financial aspect of it over to them as well. They got a weekly _paycheck_ , just like his other part time ranch hands, and both of them were pleased as punch about it.

"What did you have to have money for?"

"A new game for Charlie. And he likes it so much! He won't ever buy anything for himself. He always gives his money to Aunt Linda for food and gas since he says he's so much trouble."

"So Hector sent you the game instead of the money." Mathias said, thinking it was probably just a coincidence and that the game was from Lucian. _Or that Emma was taking Hector's letters and delivering on the requests she could._ He nearly groaned out loud.

"I had to pay the gas bill or we were gonna get cut off! And now Miss Linda's gonna lose her teeth and it's all my fault!" Millicent wailed, and then burst into great gulping sobs.

"Hey! Hey, take it easy!" Matty eased the car off the road and reached and folded her in his arms. "Nothing we can't fix, squirt." If that damn gas man had taken her money and run off with it, he'd beat him to a pulp whether it cost him his job or not. He'd like to take a tire iron to her father's head for the pain and grief he'd caused his daughter. But he couldn't even find the bastard to make him pay his child support. He held Millicent until she finally stopped crying.

"Did you get a receipt from the gas man?" he asked gently.

She wordlessly pulled it from her backpack, and Matty instantly accessed that it _was_ a legitimate receipt from the gas company.

"Don't tell mama. She tries so hard."

"I'm not going to tell, Milly." He sighed. "Here's what we're going to do. You're going to write Hector _another_ letter, and explain what you did. And Hector will know that you're just a little girl who wanted to help her friend. You can tell him that Emma or I will pay him back."

When Millicent started to protest, he said, "It's a loan. You can pay us back. But I don't want you having anymore dealings with Hector. If you need something, you ask Lane or me. Ok?"

When Millicent hesitated, he said, "Look Milly, I don't know who this new guy is. _Everybody_ knew who Hector was, and what he stood for. This new guy may turn out to be as bad as Malachi." _Or the new guy could be Emma._

"I hope you enjoy your weekend, sweetie." Ruby said, as she stood up to leave. "Just be careful, and don't do anything stupid, ok?"

Vic impulsively hugged her, and then wondered if she was losing her mind. But Ruby hugged her back warmly, and there was a trace of worry in her face. "Vic, I mean it, please -"

"I'll be fine, Ruby. I may just hang out with Cady and read Boulin's files." Actually that was what she was going to do. That and catch up on her laundry. It was sad that her weekends had come to this. "Will you be ok?" She knew that Ruby was driving to Texas with her grandkids for some family function.

"I'll be in the company of armed men all weekend." Ruby assured her, and grinned. The phone rang , and she picked it up, even though Vic gestured that she would take care of it. The look on her face changed, and she didn't even push the HOLD button before she yelled, "Walter! Phone for you!" She looked thru the door, saw him pick it up, and slammed her receiver down.

"Hi, Donna, are we still on for this evening?" they heard Walt say.

Vic fought back tears, as she walked Ruby to the top of the stairs. She was going to make sure that she got into her car, whether Ruby liked it or not. Walt's paranoia was rubbing off on her. Ferg stepped inside the door just as Ruby got to the bottom of the stairs, and Vic shot him a look and a quick point of her finger.

"Here, Ruby, let me walk you to your car." Ferg said, quickly relieving her of her lunch bag and taking her arm.

"Ferg, I'm not helpless." She laughed at him.

"Walt has told me I am to _guard the ladies."_ He winked at her, and they both laughed. Once she'd sat down in her car, he said quietly, "What's wrong with Vic?"

"I am going to strangle Walter."

"Is _that woman_ in the office?" Ferg looked horrified.

Ruby sighed deeply. "No, but Vic heard him make a date with her on the phone. Ferg, honey -"

"I'll check in on her and Cady a couple times over the weekend."

"Thanks. I hope you have a quiet weekend."

Vic didn't even say good bye to Walt. She passed Ferg on the stairs and he gave her a worried look. "Hang in there, Vic." He said, wishing he knew _something_ he could do to make her feel better.

Vic made it to the truck before she started crying. She drove home really slowly, hoping that Cady and Lucian would have already left for the rodeo before she got there. She gave a sigh of relief when there was no car in the driveway. She didn't want Lucian badgering her.

She grabbed a quick shower, and then made a phone call.

Walt left in plenty of time to make his date with Donna, but he came upon an elderly lady with a broken down car by the side of the road. It only took him a second to realize that it was Mrs. Folson, who had taught Cady in the second grade. He helped her into the truck to sit with him while they waited on the tow truck. He knew he'd have to take her home if Boulin was working. Mrs. Folson was on a fixed income and she didn't have a cell phone either.

When Violet Hammonds unfolded out of the tow truck, Walt gave a sigh of relief. He had no problem letting Violet drive Mrs. Folson home. He told her to stay in the truck until they had her car hooked up.

"Let me guess, Walt, you don't want this one fixed either?" Violet grinned at him, as she snaked a cable under the car.

He'd ascertained that Mrs. Folson's radiator had a hole in it when he stopped, trying to see if he could just make a quick repair that would get her home. "What's that going to run?" he asked.

Violet frowned. "Between two fifty and three, I'd guess. That radiator won't patch anymore. Benson'll cut her a little bit of a deal, but not much."

"Tell her that you patched it and charge her fifty bucks, and send the rest of the bill to me." Walt said. "She needs her car. I don't need her stranded out on my highways."

"You're a good man, whether you want anybody to know it or not." Violet grinned at him.

"Aren't you afraid of Boulin?"

"Do you honestly think he'd mess with me?"

Violet was five foot ten and weighed close to three hundred pounds. She was a _big_ woman. Her ex- husband had made the mistake of hitting her, _once._ She had beaten him to a bloody pulp.

"I think he's crazy. You be careful." Walt said, and he went to help Mrs. Folson into the wrecker.

He had just gotten on the road when the radio crackled to life. "Walt? Walt, you there?" Ferg's voice broke.

"I'm here."

"Walt -" Ferg stopped, and Walt knew he was crying.

He eased the truck off the road. "Take a breath, Ferg." He said kindly. Cady was protected eight ways to Sunday with Lucian and Emma, and probably half of Emma's ranch hands, on a Friday night. Ruby should have already arrived in Texas. It had to be Vic. _What in the hell had Boulin done to Vic?_ He would tear the SOB apart with his bare hands.

"Walt, Cady's hurt. Her horse fell with her at the rodeo. They're on the way to the hospital."

"Ok, Ferg, thanks." Walt said, and started to put the radio down.

"Walt?" Ferg's voice broke again.

"I'll call you as soon as I know something."

"Thanks, Walt. Ok." He could hear Ferg sniffling as he signed off.

Walt checked the mirror for traffic before he spun the truck around in the road and hit the siren. As Lucian used to say, "Man plans, and God laughs."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Walt beat the ambulance to the hospital. He paced back and forth in front of the emergency entrance until he saw it coming. They weren't running the siren. _"Dear, God, was Cady dead?"_ He was an idiot. He had never told her how much he loved her and how proud of her he was. He had never been able to talk to anybody but Martha, who had just understood.

He heard Cady as the paramedic's opened the back doors. "I want my mama!" she wailed.

"Cady, honey, stop." Rose's gentle voice. "Your mama is going to be fine. They took her in a different ambulance. You calm down, now. Everything will be ok."

As they lifted Cady out of the ambulance she spied Walt. "Please don't be mad about the car." She said, crying. "Mama tried. We couldn't _stop!"_

Rose put a warning hand on his shoulder, and Walt leaned down and said, "I don't care about the damn car. All I care about is you and your mama. You settle down now. She'll hear you and it'll upset her. I love you, punk." And then they'd wheeled her away.

He felt Rose catch hold of his arm. It was close to fifteen years ago when he'd said the exact same words, except he hadn't told Cady that he loved her then. Martha had hit a patch of black ice and her jeep had spun out of control and rolled down an embankment. It was a miracle that she and Cady hadn't been killed. Cady was re-living that. She had to have gotten a pretty good knock on the head.

"Walt." Rose said gently, and she guided him to the admitting desk, where he answered all the questions that he could, and admitted that he didn't know if Cady had any insurance.

"I'll sell the ranch if I need to." He said. "Please just help my daughter." He signed the forms that the woman gave him, vaguely realizing that he was crying, and not caring.

Rose took his arm again, and they sat down in some really uncomfortable chairs. When she reached and took his hand, he held on gratefully. He and Martha had once spent the night in the emergency room with her when Mathias had gotten hung up on a bull. Everything seemed to have come full circle.

He never even thought about Donna.

Vic's phone woke her, and she groaned. It was work. She was hung over as hell, and she hadn't – _she hadn't_ . She saw Eammon in bed next to her. _She had._ Dear lord. The first time had been a mistake. Now she'd gone and done it _again._

She muttered something unintelligible into the phone.

"Sorry to wake you up, Philly, but I need you to come in."

It took her a minute to place the gravelly voice. _Lucian!_ What in the hell was Lucian doing calling her from the office. _Something had happened to Walt!_ He had protected everyone but himself. If he was dead… If he was dead, she didn't think she could go on.

"Vic?" Eammon whispered. "You alright?" When she didn't answer him, he got up and padded naked into the bathroom.

"Cady's horse fell with her at the rodeo." Lucian said. "Walt's at the hospital, all tore up."

"Will she be alright?" Vic whispered, her heart in her throat.

"She got a pretty nasty bump on the head. If you're a mind to talk to the man upstairs, it might not be a bad idea." Lucian cleared his throat hard. "Ferg and I will hold the fort until you can get here. I got permission for Eammon to come back to work as long as we need him, do you want me to call him?"

"I'll do it." Vic said. Now she was going to have to work with a man that she should never have hooked up with.

"If you could grab some of Cady's things and drop 'em off at the hospital, that'd be great." Lucian said. "Walt and I don't need to be pawing thru her underwear drawer."

That almost made Vic laugh, and then she thought she was going to be sick. "Sure Lucian, I'll be glad to."

"And stop at the convenience store on the corner and pick up a bouquet of flowers. I don't think they have vases there, but maybe she's got one at home that you can stick 'em in.

"Ok." Vic said, "It'll probably be at least two hours before I get to the office." She laid her phone on the night stand, dimly realizing that she'd slid off the bed into the floor.

"Vic, here." Eammon handed her a glass of water, and when he saw that she couldn't hold it, he steadied her hand as she drained it. "You ok?" The worry and concern in his eyes was real.

"Cady's horse fell on her." Her voice broke. _God, she was not going to cry. Not in front of him!_ She choked. "I have to go to work. And you, will you please help me? They cleared it for you to come back to our office, but I know it's your weekend off -"

"You two are tight, huh?" He was so sincere, and Vic just felt horrid. Why in the hell had she hooked up with him? She should have gone to the rodeo herself to watch Cady ride. "She's not gonna die is she?"

"Lucian said to pray." Vic choked, put her face in her hands. "I have to take some of Cady's things to the hospital. And flowers -"

Eammon helped her to her feet, and she didn't even realize that she'd let him. "I'll just run home and grab a uniform and go right to the office." He hugged Vic close. "I'll say a prayer for Cady too."

Vic jumped into her clothes and all but ran out the door. She'd only gone a few miles down the road when she had to pull over to be sick. Eammon was a kind, considerate man. A good man. _She never wanted to see him again._

She'd been appalled that she had to move in with Cady, but she hadn't had anywhere else to go. And after the initial awkwardness had passed, she'd found out that she liked Cady. She didn't think Cady liked her very much, and she was sure that she didn't want her as a step-mother. _Like that was ever going to happen._ She couldn't even get Walt to talk to her. And, oh, god, he'd had a date last night. If that woman was at the hospital with him…

Mathias strolled into Cady's room a little after six. Walt and Rose had spent most of the night in the ER waiting room chairs, before they'd finally moved her into a room. The diagnosis, mild concussion, and a broken ankle. Since she'd had traumatic brain injuries before, they were going to monitor her and wait to pin her ankle.

Mathias nodded to Walt and Rose, and then when he saw that Cady was awake, he showed her the flower arrangement he had in his hand. "Your dad asked me to stop and get you some flowers. I'm sorry they're not real." He winked at her.

Cady grinned, delighted, and he leaned down and kissed her bruised cheek.

"You're supposed to keep the horse upright, Red." When he saw that she was upset, he said, "Blackjack's ok. Sue gave Aunt Emma a sedative, and she and Wally will be in a little later. She said she had to get the hell out of Dodge, while Auntie Em was still asleep. She's got some pictures to show you when she gets here. Everybody's gonna be just fine." He grinned at her, showed her the card he had in his hand. "Caitlin made this for you." He sat it on the table next to the flowers he'd brought, and turned to Walt. "You want to grab a cup of coffee or anything? I can stay for awhile before I need to run Mom home."

"I don't need anymore coffee. Thank you Mathias." Walt said, standing up and offering his hand. The kid had thought of the flowers himself, and credited Walt with it, and hell, he'd made Cady smile.

Mathias looked confused, but he shook Walt's hand, winked at Cady again, while Rose whispered something to her, and then the two of them left.

"That was really nice of you, Matty." Rose said, once they were in the car.

"Jeanne did the flowers, I just picked 'em up."

"Saying they were from Walt."

"Cady's a smart cookie, she'll figure it out. Walt had other things on his mind. You ok?"

"It was a long night." She sighed. "Did Sue really give Emma a mickey?"

Mathias laughed. "Well you saw her before the ambulance got there. I was afraid she was gonna have a stroke." Then he sobered. "I was really afraid something was going to happen to her. She was so upset. Nobody can handle her but you and Sue, and Sue had her hands full. I know you needed to go with Cady to the hospital."

"Is Blackjack ok?"

"When I got off, I stopped by the ranch, and the vet had already been there and done ex-rays. He said nothing was broken and he didn't see why Blackjack wouldn't be fine, as long as he didn't colic. Beth and Sally and Sissy were going to sleep with him, but Wally put a stop to that. He made Beth and Sally help with Emma, and Coop and Sissy stayed with the horse."

"I should just go straight out to Emma's."

"You should go home and get some sleep first. Really, Mom." He looked at her. "Sue said that she figured that Emma would sleep until at least ten."

"Walt is really worried about Boulin getting out."

"That's why Wally wouldn't let the girls stay in the barn." In years past, it had been nothing for half the ranch kids to sleep in the barn if a horse was sick or hurt, or they were waiting on a foal, or any other excuse they could think of. Sleeping in the barn was an adventure not to be missed. Sissy had pitched such a fit over the fact that they thought it was ok for her Uncle Coop to stay alone, that Wally had given in and let her stay too.

"What do you think, Matty?"

"I think he's crazy. You should be careful. I've been meaning to talk to Emma anyway." He sighed. "Mom, you know that Jeanne and I just want you to be happy."

Rose looked at him, confused. "What?"

"If you want to date, that's your business. I just kind of wish that you wouldn't date Walt."

Rose started laughing. "Who told you that I held that poor man's hand?"

"Actually -" Matty hesitated, figuring that she would blow up. "It was on the Absaroka County facebook page."

"What?"

"Somebody took a picture of you and Walt. I figure it was all over the county before Inez saw it, and had it taken down. Man, she wrote a blistering commentary about it too. I'm probably going to have to go before the Tribal Council over it."

"They would not _dare_ fire Inez."

"Well, you know what a temper she's got. She could have been a little more diplomatic."

"Not that it's anybody's business -" Rose stopped. She was angry. "Martha and I were friends for years. She and Walt spent the night with _me_ at the hospital that last time you got hung up on a bull." At Mathias's inquiring look, she continued, "Your father was out of town at some law enforcement conference, remember? Emma and Robert had to get the rest of the rodeo team home."

"I didn't know that." As she pulled her phone from her purse, "Mom, what are you going to do?"

"Tell all of Absaroka County exactly that. And that anyone who has a problem with me being _friends_ with Walt Longmire, can forget having another one of my pies. _Ever."_

Vic was running on empty by the time she got to the hospital, and she just gave up. She didn't take her sunglasses off when she went inside. Her eyes were puffy and swollen and anyone could tell that she'd been crying.

"These are for Cady Longmire." She said to the nurse on duty, gesturing to the duffel bag and the flowers. "I'm sorry, but I need to get in to work. Could you make sure that she gets them?"

The girl looked like she was twelve years old, certainly not old enough to be the RN that her name tag proclaimed her to be. "She's going to be ok." She whispered to Vic. "I'm sure it would be alright for you to go back." She gestured towards the room.

"I'm sorry." Vic said. "We're short handed and I'm in charge. I really need to get to work."

"Ok. I'll take care of it."

Vic flew out to her truck. If _that woman_ was there… If _that woman_ told her that she had anger management issues again, she would - she would break her face.

When she walked into the office, Lucian was sitting at Ruby's desk. "You look like shit, Philly." He said.

"Thanks, Lucian. You really know the way to a girl's heart." Vic sank down in the closest chair. "The nurse said that Cady was going to be alright. I don't know if she was supposed to tell me or not."

"Yeah, Walt called just after I called you." Lucian looked at her worriedly. "Are you able to work?"

"I'm ok." Vic lied. "And Eammon's coming in."

"I already sent Eammon out to help round up a pony that decided it'd be fun to play in the highway."

"Oh, god! It's not dead, is it?" She hated going out on livestock related car crashes. It was almost as bad as dealing with dead kids. She didn't realize that she was shaking and starting to cry again.

"They'll catch it, Philly. It's Saturday morning, lots of people out and about and willing to lend a hand." Lucian said, hoping that it would be true, _this_ time.

"Get some rest, Lucian." Vic said, swiping angrily at her eyes. "And thanks for helping out." He looked about as bad as she thought she did. But then, he'd probably seen Cady fall.

"Been a long night." Lucian agreed, and gave her one last worried look before he left.

As soon as Vic heard the lower door shut behind him, she pulled the trash can over where she could reach it, and laid her head down on Ruby's desk. It was only a few minutes before she heard the door open again. "Oh, shit." She mumbled. "What in the hell?" If she had to listen to some idiot griping about a stolen chicken, she was liable to shoot somebody. Maybe herself.

"You looked like you needed this." Lucian sat down two Cokes , a pack of BC, and a box of saltines in front of her.

"Thank you." Vic said. As soon as he left, she would dump the BC in the trash. There was no way in hell she would take that stuff.

Lucian propped on the corner of the desk. "Bottoms up." He gestured. "it may taste like shit, but it works."

 _The old buzzard wasn't going to leave until she took it._ It would serve him right if she barfed on his boots. She sighed, ripped the pack open, dumped it in her mouth, and washed it down with Coke.

"Hope you have an easy day, Philly. I'll be back about six." Lucian stumbled, nearly fell, and Vic grabbed him without thinking. For a few very brief seconds, she thought they were going to end up in the floor.

"Lucian, I'll drive you home." She said.

"You're in as bad a shape as I am."

"Ruby won't have a dirty jail. That first cell is clean." Vic said, knowing it was true. They usually didn't use the first cell anyway, except on the very rare occasions when the jail was full.

"That might be a good idea. You just wake me up if you need me."

"Ok." Vic said, wondering what had just made her think that he was a lot like her grandfather, who she had dearly loved in spite of him being a pain in the ass. She waited until Lucian had laid down on the bunk before she put her head back down on the desk.

Eammon was about to give up. The little paint pony had no intention of being caught, and he'd finally shooed it into a field adjoining the road, and sat in the car with his flashers on. Very little traffic had come by, and though everybody had slowed down, no one had offered to stop and help.

A western hauler finally came into view, and coasted to a stop next to him. "Need some help?" the huge, grizzled cowboy driver asked.

"Yes sir." Eammon said. The cowgirl sitting next to the driver smiled at him. Eammon figured that she was probably his wife. Two of the three teenagers in the back seat started giggling. The other girl looked like she was going to cry. The cowboy shot a silent look into the rearview mirror, and the girls shut up instantly.

"Beth will catch the pony." The cowboy said. He looked at Eammon, "Pull your cruiser up and block the road." He pointed. "Sue, honey –" he looked at the lady sitting next to him.

"Nobody will get past me." She said cheerfully, and slid across under the wheel. Eammon had no doubt at all that if some drunk leaving the casino decided they weren't going to stop, she'd ram them with that huge truck and not even think about it.

The cowboy pointed to the other teenagers, and they silently got out and took up positions on either side of the road. The girl who looked like she was going to cry pulled some kind of knotted rope from under the seat and looped it over her arm. She handed the big cowboy a lariat that was hanging in the rear window, and a short rope with a clip on it.

Eammon watched from the patrol car in absolute amazement as the girl, Beth, her Dad had called her, walked within five feet of the pony, stopped and spoke to him, and the little brat walked right up to her and nuzzled her. She tied the rope thing around his head as she scratched under his chin.

The big cowboy walked up slowly and clipped a lead line on the pony, patted his neck and muttered something that sounded to Eammon like, "you dumb son of a bitch."

Eammon got out of the car, slowly, and walked up to the lady in the truck. "That was _amazing."_ He said. "I couldn't even get near him."

"My Beth has a way with animals." She shot a warning look at the other two girls who had left their posts and were walking, giggling again, back towards the truck.

"Is she sick?" Eammon asked worriedly.

The cowgirl looked at him, surprised, and then she smiled. "She flunked out of college. She's pretty upset."

"I'm sorry." Eammon said, appalled.

"Well sometimes we don't get what we think we want." The woman looked across the road where her husband and daughter were leading the naughty pony toward the truck. "Sometimes we get something better." She smiled at her family, and then shot another annoyed look at the still giggling girls. "And sometimes part of it is nothing but a pain in the ass."

"Thank you for doing that." Eammon said to the big man. "I'm just filling in, and I don't know anything about livestock."

"I'm Wally." The big man said, offering his hand. "Come out to the ranch and we'll teach you how to catch a horse if you need to."

"Eammon." Eammon watched his entire hand and most of his wrist disappear as the man shook his hand, and decided that this was a guy you didn't mess with. Apart from that, he had a feeling that anybody who tried, might have to contend with his wife first.

"Maybe you should follow us." Beth said, looking at Eammon for the first time. "Most of the locals will stop, but some of these casino people are idiots. He only lives about two miles up the road." She pointed.

 _Not only had she caught the pony, she knew where it lived, and intended to take it home!_ Eammon wanted to hug her. "Thank you, miss. I'll be glad to." He said, and went back to turn the cruiser around.

Wally and Beth sat in the back of the truck, and Wally held the lead rope as Sue drove the truck very slowly. Eammon brought up the rear with his lights flashing, keeping a careful eye in the rearview mirror to see that no drunk was going to hit them. He breathed a sigh of relief when they turned off the highway.

Beth took the pony straight into the barn, and Eammon heard her telling the other girls to fill his water bucket and get him some hay.

"You can just leave me here." Wally said to Sue. "I'll walk the fence and see where he got out."

"I thought you were going to take custody of Walt." She said, and she wasn't kidding. "We can _all_ walk the fence after we talk to Cady. Evidently sleeping in the barn didn't take any of the sass out of Sissy."

"You just don't want to go home."

"That's right. I'm a coward." Sue grinned at her husband. Eammon seriously doubted that the woman was afraid of anything.

"You and me both." He grinned back at her, then sobered. "Hell, I don't know what else you could have done. Damn Robert anyway! Why in the hell did he have to die?"

"It's alright, honey." Sue squeezed the big man's arm. She looked at Eammon. "I gave our boss a sedative last night. Cady was riding one of her horses at the rodeo, and Emma was seriously upset. "

"That's why they called me back to work." Eammon looked at her worriedly. "Do you know if Cady will be alright?"

"Broken ankle and a mild concussion. She was damn lucky." Wally said.

When Eammon looked at him in confusion, Sue said, "Blackjack stepped on her when he tried to get up."

"That's why I'm afraid of horses." Eammon said. "I really do appreciate you helping me, and I'd like to take you up on your offer." He said to Wally. He removed a card from his wallet. "If you let me know when it's convenient for you, I'll be right out."

"Glad to help." Wally assured him.

Walt had stepped out into the hall so that the Doctor could check Cady over again, when he saw Wally's family coming. Sue stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. "How you holdin' up, sweetie?" she asked.

Walt turned a furious red and Wally grinned at him.

"I'm ok, Sue, thanks." Walt managed.

"Come on, Walt. The girls don't need us in the way." Wally steered him toward the restroom. "Go wash your face, and come on out to the truck. I got us some good coffee, and some breakfast." Though it was voiced as a suggestion, Walt was pretty sure that if he refused, that Wally would have no problem forcibly dragging him into the men's room and holding his head under the faucet. Sue had evidently told her husband to get Walt cleaned up and fed.

"Thanks, Wally." Walt said, and did as he was told.

When he went outside, Wally was sitting on the truck tailgate, drinking coffee. He sat his down and poured Walt a cup, and Walt sat down next to him, and took the sandwich Wally handed him as well.

"I think they try to make you sick with that damn hospital food so that they can make some more money." Wally said.

Walt nodded in silent agreement. The coffee was good. He and Rose had had several soft drinks each during the night. He just couldn't stomach the thought of vending machine coffee, and Rose didn't drink it at all.

"You know, we just want the best for our kids, and we try so damn hard to protect them, and get them what they want. And poor Beth, she's wanted to be a vet since she was a little squirt, and she just can't handle the book part of it. Now she can sew up a horse, or tube a calf , or pull mispresented babies good as anybody. Sue and I taught her that. But what she really needs to know, to succeed, I don't know how to help her."

Walt listened to Wally talk, realized that the man was trying to get his mind off Cady, and succeeding.

Meanwhile, Sissy was showing Cady the pictures and video she had on her phone, beginning with Wally driving the skid steer loaded with shavings and dumping them in the horse trailer, so that Blackjack could lie down on the ride home if he wanted. Continuing into the vet exam, with Wally and Coop shoving a syringe full of medicine down Blackjack's throat, and ending with the horse sleeping comfortably in his stall.

"He's really ok?" Cady whispered, crying again.

"The vet said as long as he didn't colic, we should be fine." Sue assured her again. "I'm sure he'll be healed up before you are."

"It was my fault." Cady said.

Sue nodded. "It was. But that horse has no sense. You told him to run and he did. Accidents happen." She patted Cady on the shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up over it."

"I'll pay the vet bill." Cady said, wondering where she was going to get the money. She didn't feel comfortable drawing a salary from her law practice yet, no matter what Nighthorse had told her.

"Well you and Emma can discuss that after everybody is feeling better." Sue grinned at her. "It's probably not very much. Dr. Ramsey still gives us a huge discount because we were the first ones to use her when she opened her practice."

Cady knew it was true. Another woman trying to make a go of it in a man's world. Only Dr. Ramsey had succeeded, and was doing very well, and she was still floundering.

When the phone rang two hours later, Vic dimly realized that her head had quit hurting. And that Eammon wasn't back. Which didn't spell good news for the pony.

"Vic, this is Mathias. Walt was supposed to come out this morning and talk to that assault victim. I figured that we needed to re-schedule."

She had completely forgotten about it. "No, I'll come. Walt wants Boulin back behind bars. Where should I meet you?"

He hesitated. "Look my cruiser won't make it down into the canyon. It takes some pretty serious four wheelin' to get there. If you've got a problem with me drivin' your truck, we should just put this off."

"I can drive, Mathias." Vic said tiredly.

"I doubt you did much four wheelin' in Philly. Our phones and radios won't work down in that hole. If we get stuck, we'll have to hike back out, and I'm really not up to that. It's at least five miles of rough country. Your truck will have to sit there until we can get a rancher with a big tractor to come yank it out. Benson won't send a wrecker down there."

"Oh shit." Vic said. She had not enjoyed the several times that she had gone off road with Walt and Omar. Omar drove like a maniac and she had had bruises all over from bouncing around in the truck trying to hang on. "You can drive, that's not a problem."

She scribbled a note for Lucian, put it and the spare keys to the cell under his hat, with the paper sticking out where he could see it. If another branch of law enforcement wandered in, needing a cell, she didn't want him getting locked in by accident.

Mathias was leaning against his cruiser when she got to their meeting place. She'd already put the truck in four wheel drive, the road was so terrible, and her head was back to pounding again. She had no idea how Mathias had gotten his low slung car there.

She raised the console and slid over to the passenger seat, putting it back down as Mathias climbed in, carrying a backpack, a canteen, and a shotgun.

"You were serious." She said. She'd thought he'd just been trying to pick a fight with her.

"Yeah." He adjusted the seat, checked the mirrors, and then glanced at her. " You need to let me take the lead on this. If I tell you to do something, you need to do it and not argue with me. Is that a problem?"

"Ok. You're the boss." Vic said, wondering what in the heck was going on. Walt wanted this case worked. If she needed to kiss Mathias's ass for the day, she would do it. She _was_ a good cop. If Walt married that woman… If Walt married someone else, she couldn't work with him anymore.

The excuse for a road went on and on, and Vic grimly stuffed a cracker in her mouth. She was not going to be sick again. Mathias stopped the truck, laid on the horn, and listened for several minutes before rolling forward again. And then the road just dropped off in front of them. If she hadn't had cracker in her mouth, Vic thought she would have screamed. All she could see was the hood of the truck and open space. Mathias was leaning his head out the window, just creeping along. She should have just stayed in the office. She should never have come out here!

They were just inching along, and suddenly, she felt the right rear tire catch on something, and the truck turned sideways.

"SHIT!" Mathias said, as he fought the wheel. "Watch your head, Vic! Watch your head!"

Vic grabbed the sissy bar with both hands and leaned in towards Mathias, away from the glass window. The truck was going to roll over and the two of them were going to be pinned in the wreckage for half a day before someone came to look for them. She was going to be sick again.

They slid sideways, and suddenly everything leveled out, and the truck lurched to a stop. Vic had the door open almost before they stopped, and as she fumbled with her seatbelt, Mathias grabbed her arm.

"NO!" he said.

Vic just leaned out the open door and barfed. What in the hell was wrong with him, that he wouldn't let her out of the truck! When she finally stopped vomiting, he wordlessly handed her some paper towels. "Don't get out of the truck!" He evidently didn't like the look on her face, because he said, " _I mean it!"_

He took the shotgun from the rack, slid the safety off, and walked partway back up the hill. Vic rinsed her mouth out with some Coke, wondered if she was having an aneurism. She felt like somebody was beating her head with an axe. She undid her seatbelt, managed to stand up on the doorframe so that she could try and see what Mathias was doing.

He was just standing, listening intently, and then he stopped and peered into what appeared to be the hole that the truck tire had gotten caught in.

"If you can walk, bring me the gloves out of my pack!" he called.

Vic wasn't sure that she _could_ walk, but she'd embarrassed herself once in front of him. She'd crawl if she had to.

She handed him the gloves and he handed her the shotgun. "Cover us." He said, pointing to the wooded hillside. "We made a lot of noise coming down, but I don't intend to be taken out by a damn hog."

"What?" Vic didn't think she'd heard him right.

Mathias grabbed a tree limb, poked at a pile of rocks and scattered them before starting to pick them up and stuff them down the hole. "One of Bill Rogers ranch hands was attacked a couple days ago. If he'd been by himself, he'd be dead. The other guy beat the hog off him with a pry bar and got him in the truck and to the hospital. Didn't you read Inez's memo?"

"I thought it was a joke." Vic turned and scanned the hillside. "Why can't I just shoot them with my pistol?"

"I've seen it take five .45 rounds in the head to drop a hog. They just keep coming." Mathias glanced at her. "That's loaded with slugs, and they kick like a bitch. Don't get knocked down if you have to shoot. I want to tell you that I won't run like a girl, but I am afraid of hogs. Anybody with good sense is."

"Will the man be alright?"

"He may lose his leg." Mathias stomped the rocks in the hole, decided it was good enough, and reached to take the shotgun back.

"Shit." Vic looked at him worriedly. "I didn't know they would attack people."

"Guy had a pack of peanuts in his pocket. He was down on his knees working on the fence."

"Oh shit." Vic started frantically brushing cracker crumbs off her uniform.

"It's not just Boulin you have to worry about out here, Vic." Mathias gestured for her to head back to the truck, and he walked sideways down the hill. "Inez had a run in with some of those damn roughnecks. I guess they thought that since they got away with raping little girls, they might give a tribal policewoman a try."

"They didn't hurt her, did they?"

Mathias shook his head, waited until she was seated before he climbed in the truck and stowed the shotgun in the rack. "She was on her way home in her pick up, and they tried to run her off the road. She's a better driver than any of my guys. Bill bought her one of those hands free headsets, and she called him before she called me. Time she turned unto the ranch road, there were six trucks of armed cowboys there. Bill put a couple rounds in their truck before Inez could stop him. I think there were three of them, and he would have killed them."

"Did you find them?"

"They'd smeared mud all over the plates. We got a pretty good paint sample, but I can't find the truck." Mathias sighed. "That's why I gave Inez the tribal SUV to drive all the time."

"It's not right that those oil workers keep getting away with the things they do."

"You should be careful too, Vic. You might want to back off on the drinking for awhile."

"I can take care of myself."

Mathias shook his head at her. "You're young and pretty, and you helped lock two of those assholes up. I don't know if Walt will survive losing another deputy."

"Point taken." Vic looked out the window. " But I always said that I would quit drinking when pigs fly."

"Don't say things like that." Mathias said.

"Are you superstitious?" Then Vic thought that she might have committed a cultural error, and said, "I'm sorry, none of my business."

When they pulled up in front of the fallen down hovel, Vic was appalled. Mathias took the two little girls out to the swingset, and Vic walked over to the corral and talked to the woman.

"That was a complete waste of time." She said as she got back in the truck. "Her ex-husband beat her up."

Mathias nodded. "Yeah. She won't press charges, because if he goes to jail, it'll mess up her child support."

"If you knew that, why did you bring me out here?"

"You wouldn't have believed me."

"Truce." Vic said. "Let's stop wasting each other's time. How about the other woman who was attacked?"

"I think Boulin probably did it. As soon as that woman got out of the hospital, she hauled ass back to California. She just seems to want to forget the whole thing. She won't return any of Inez's calls."

"Well shit." Vic said, and then couldn't stop herself from groaning out loud when they reached the big hill.

"Won't be so bad going up." Mathias said, then laid on the horn, waited a couple seconds, and when nothing appeared, gunned the truck up the hill.

Vic looked out the side window as they climbed. "You blow the horn so if somebody else is coming, they'll stop?" she asked out loud. "What if they're riding a horse, and already half way up?"

A look of sheer panic crossed Mathias's face a half a second before he said, "GET DOWN!"

Vic looked at him, confused, her hungover brain not processing what he was saying, and he yanked her ponytail and shoved her down on the console, before he leaned down over her, steering with one hand.

She thought somebody was fixing to shoot them, and they were sitting ducks in the truck on the rough road. Then a hog flew through the air over the truck hood and splashed down into the pond on the other side of the road.

"I thought the son of a bitch was coming thru the windshield." Mathias straightened up, shook his head. "You ok?"

Vic's mouth opened and closed, and she looked at him stupidly. "I am never going to drink again." She finally said.

"He didn't fly, Vic. But it sure looked like it, didn't it?" Mathias chuckled. "They were fighting up on top of the hill. He got shoved off."

He took the truck out of four wheel drive before he stopped at his cruiser. "You came the wrong way." He said, when she started to protest.

"I used my GPS."

"Don't. Don't rely on a map either. You ask somebody at the station for directions before you come out here." When she just looked confused, "These roads are bad. Sometimes they wash completely out. A lot of folks out here still ride horses, it's not a problem to them. You can have a rock slide, or fallen trees, and you get out here with a truck and you can't turn around." As he got out, he said, "Follow me, and I'll get you headed back to town."

"Thank you." Vic said, and meant it. Several miles later, he pulled over, and she rolled her window down as he pointed to the road to the left, _which wasn't even registering on her GPS!_

"Two miles. Comes out right in back of the Dino Mart."

"Thank you, Mathias. For everything." She started to roll her window back up. "I completely forgot about Cady! She's going to be ok!"

"I went to see her this morning." He actually smiled at her. "Take care of yourself, Vic."

She nodded and waved as she turned off the road, halfway wondering if he was sending her on a wild goose chase. But exactly two miles later, it dead ended into the Dino Mart parking lot. She needed to use the facilities and she wanted a cold Coke, and _another one of those damn BC's_ , because the things actually did work.

Some of the other restroom stalls were occupied, and she heard one lady say, "Damn him to hell! He didn't even have the decency to call me."

Another lady said, "Well he's the sheriff. Maybe something came up."

"Oh, something came up alright. I looked on the County facebook page to see if something was going on. And I see a picture of _him_! Holding hands with some _Indian_ woman!"

Vic looked thru the crack in the door as Donna exited the stall next to her. She thought she was going to be sick again. Maybe Donna had never been her competition after all.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

As Walt pulled unto Cady's street, he saw an Absaroka County sheriff's car parked several houses down from hers. The car they'd given Eammon to drive. He pulled in behind it, saw Eammon raise up in the seat and groan.

"What's goin' on?" he asked the deputy.

"I just got to thinking I should keep an eye on Vic since she's by herself." Eammon looked sheepish. "And I fell asleep. It's been a long day. I screwed up, I know it."

"Been doin' some of that myself lately." Walt stopped, cleared his throat. "I should have hired you to begin with. If you still want the job, it's yours."

"Thanks!" Eammon said. Then, "I know it's probably none of my business, but anybody that wanted to could get in those french doors in less than five minutes. Nobody's getting past that _thing_ though." He pointed at the house behind Cady's, and Walt chuckled in spite of himself.

Mrs. Allred, Cady's elderly neighbor, had a huge dog who looked like a cross between a grizzly bear and a school bus, and answered to the unlikely name of "Fluffy". Fluffy might have been a cute puppy, but he was, without a doubt, the ugliest dog that Walt had ever seen.

"Thanks, Eammon. Go home and get some rest."

Walt unlocked the front door, called, "Vic! It's me!" And wandered into the dining room to take a look at the French doors.

"Walt! Is Cady alright?" Vic came flying out of the bedroom in a t-shirt that left absolutely _nothing_ to the imagination, and Walt gulped. "Are you ok?" she asked, misunderstanding the look on his face.

"I just came to get some of Cady's files." He turned back to the dining room table. "I could have had Ferg and Lucian with me, you know?"

"What?" Vic looked at his back in confusion, and then realized that all she had on was her sleep shirt. She must have embarrassed him. "I'm sorry, Walt. I'll get dressed."

"No, go back to bed. I just didn't want to startle you." He walked over and shook one of the French doors again, cussed under his breath.

"Walt?"

"I'll get the alarm company out here in the morning to install a system. Go back to bed, Vic." He repeated, not turning around.

"Ok. Try and get some rest yourself." She made sure that the bedroom door clicked behind her as she shut it. Whatever she and Walt had _had, or evidently not had_ as she had thought, was gone. She didn't know if she could work with him anymore. She leaned against the door, silent tears streaming down her face. She wasn't going to abandon Cady while she was on crutches. Six or eight weeks, she figured. She'd give Walt her notice, and _then what?_

In the meantime, there were things she needed to learn. _She wasn't going back to Philly._ She would start with asking Omar to help her, she decided. But how was she going to pay him?

She waited until she heard Walt close and lock the door behind him, and started to go back to bed. The dim blur that she could see thru the curtain made her pull it back and look, to see Mrs. Allred and Fluffy walking slowly up the sidewalk.

" _Shit!"_ Vic said. What in the world was wrong with the woman? She'd explained, very gently, and carefully, _she had thought_ , that they were worried about Boulin, and that it might be a good idea if Mrs. Allred asked Vic or Cady if she needed anything after dark. Fluffy might be huge, but the only way he would ever hurt anyone was if he knocked them down trying to wash their face.

Vic jumped into her jeans, grabbed her gun, and zipped her coat up over her sleep shirt, jamming her feet in her shoes as she barreled out the door.

"Mrs. Allred!" Vic called, as she jogged after the woman.

"Well, hello, Vic! What are you doing out here?"

Vic rubbed Fluffy's huge head absently. "Mrs. Allred, it's 10:30. Why are you out so late?"

"My husband and I always walked Fluffy at ten." The elderly lady reached and patted Vic's arm. "We're fine, dear. We can look after ourselves."

Vic nearly groaned, but she fell into step with them. With Fluffy stopping to sniff and investigate every bush, it was going to be midnight before she got them herded back to their house and locked inside. She heard the vehicle approach slowly behind them, and for half a second, she thought that Walt had come back. _Maybe he could do something with Mrs. Allred!_

When she glanced over at the truck, she panicked. Benson's wrecker was keeping pace with them, and the window slowly lowered. "Hello, pretty ladies." The man said, and smiled.

Vic had seen Boulin's mug shots, but nothing could have prepared her for his face. If he opened the truck door, she was going to send him on a fast, one way trip to hell. She closed her hand on her pistol in her pocket. She was so scared that she was almost shaking.

Fluffy stopped, and snarled. He peeled his lips back and every tooth in his mouth gleamed. Vic was caught between being horrified, and fascinated that his teeth were so clean.

"Go away, Arlo." Mrs. Allred said. "You should be ashamed of yourself."

"Just bein' friendly."

"I don't want to be _friendly_ with you, and I don't want to have to turn Fluffy loose. He gets sick when he eats garbage. Go away, before I _blow you_ away."

Arlo laughed, made a mockery of tipping his hat to them, as he pulled off.

"Mrs. Allred, you shouldn't tell people that you have a gun when you don't!" Vic said, as she followed the woman and Fluffy into the house. She gasped out loud when she saw what she thought was a sawed off shotgun in a holster, as Mrs. Allred took her coat off. "That's illegal!"

"No, dear, it's not. Omar got it for me. It's called a _mare's leg_ , and he said that it's the stupidest gun ever invented. Steve McQueen had one in "Wanted, Dead or Alive." It's my favorite show. Have you ever watched it?"

"Ahh… No, I don't think so."

"It comes on in fifteen minutes. Why don't you stay and watch it with me? Combat! comes on right after, and I like that too. I used to watch it with my husband when it was first on. I do think that Steve McQueen would have made a better Sergeant Saunders though."

Vic went and sat down on the couch with Fluffy, as Mrs. Allred went into the kitchen and made them some popcorn. Then she got up and closed all the blinds. She couldn't leave the woman alone. Arlo was liable to come back. Truthfully, she was more worried about Mrs. Allred shooting either herself or Fluffy than she was about her killing Arlo. And she was mad at herself. She was a trained police officer, and she had never been so scared in her life. If Walt had been there, she would have jumped behind him. Heck, she might have even hidden behind _Ferg!_ What in the hell was wrong with her?

The doorbell woke Vic up, and she groaned." _Oh, god! She had meant to quit drinking! She had another hangover from hell and she didn't know where she was! Or who she was sleeping with! But whoever it was, was damn heavy! And they didn't smell very good. She had been so hurt over the way Walt acted. Who in the hell had she picked up? One of those damn oil field workers?"_

WOOF!

"Fluffy! Leave Vic alone!" Mrs. Allred called, and the dog bounded off her and into the kitchen.

So much for her protecting Mrs. Allred. She hadn't even woke up when the woman put a blanket over her.

She thought she heard _Mathias_! And then another man's voice! She pulled her coat on, and stumbled into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Miss Victoria!" A young Native American man greeted her cheerfully as he stepped in the door with a sack of dog food on his shoulder.

"Good morning." Vic said in a daze. Surely this was all just a bad dream.

"I'm Lane. Mathias's brother in law." The guy said, as he dumped the dog food into a bin. "Thanks for looking after Mrs. Allred." He grinned at her.

Mathias came in the door with another bag of dog food, and shot Vic a quizzical look.

"Do you need some help?" she offered. It was barely daylight. Why were they bringing Mrs. Allred groceries so early in the morning?

"Sure." Mathias said, gesturing her in front of him.

"Sorry we didn't get here yesterday." Lane said to Mrs. Allred. "I was afraid the Fluffster would be out of food." He patted Fluffy's huge head as he passed.

Mathias handed Vic a bag of cat litter and stacked a huge box of dog biscuits on top of it. "Mrs. Allred doesn't have a cat." She whispered.

"She's got two." Mathias said. "You want to tell me what's wrong?"

"I haven't had any coffee yet."

The look on his face said that he wasn't buying that, but he didn't press it, and they each carried a load in. When Lane offered her a hand up into the back of the truck, she took it, and slid the rest of the groceries back to the tailgate where they could reach them. Mrs. Allred had fixed all of them coffee to go when they got done.

"Thanks." Vic said, "I'll be back tonight to walk Fluffy and watch Steve McQueen."

"That sounds lovely, dear."

"You want a ride back around to Cady's?" Mathias asked. Even though the houses were back to back, it was about a block and a half.

"Thank you." Vic said, and waved to Lane as she got in Mathias's cruiser.

"What's wrong Vic?" Mathias asked again as he got in the car.

"My elderly neighbor has a huge gun that I don't think she can manage and I'm afraid she's going to shoot herself." There was no way she was going to tell him how terrified of Boulin that she was. "I'm supposed to be a _good cop._ I can't get her to understand that it's not safe for her to walk her dog late at night."

"Well, Vic, you can only do so much. If people don't want to listen to you?" Mathias shrugged.

"Do you know who Walt's having an affair with?" Vic clapped her hand over her mouth in sheer horror. She hadn't actually meant to say that out loud.

"Well most of us _Injuns_ think the two of you are pretty tight." Mathias said. As she cringed, he said. "Sorry. I know nothing about Walt's personal life. But if you're worried about that Doctor, I don't think you need to be."

"Not the Doctor." Vic said, and swiped at the tears that were starting.

"Oh, hell! You saw that facebook post."

Actually, she hadn't. She hadn't let herself look. She thought the pain would be too much.

"Vic, I can assure you that _my mother_ is not having an affair with Walt."

"What?" Vic looked at him in total confusion.

"Okay. You and I must be talking about two different things." Mathias looked at her worriedly. "My Mom spent the night with Walt at the hospital. They've known each other forever, and she and Martha were really good friends. Somebody took a picture of them holding hands, and put it up on facebook."

"Oh." Vic said. "It's none of my business."

"I don't like that Doctor." Mathias continued. "She told me I had issues with my father. The woman doesn't even _know_ _me!"_

"Do you?"

"The only issue I have with my father is that he died and left my Mom in a mess."

"I'm sure he didn't mean to."

"I know that."

"She told me I had anger management issues." Vic said. _When in the hell had she started confiding in Mathias?_

"Unless you've been in combat yourself, I don't think you have any business treating vets. If you've never been shot at, there's no way you can understand what they went thru." Mathias continued. "That poor woman that killed herself, Brandy - she had so many demons in her head that Mrs. Nez said the kindest thing to do was to let her go."

"Did you know her?"

" Yeah." Mathias sighed. "She and her husband were really into the outdoors. They were good people."

"And now she's dead, and her husband's going to prison because he tried to help other vets."

"Sometimes being a cop really sucks."

Vic groaned when she saw an alarm system van parked in Cady's driveway. Walt was out in the yard with several workmen. "Wondered where you were." Walt said to Vic.

"I spent the night with Mrs. Allred." She said.

"Vic's upset that Mrs. A won't listen to her about walking Fluffy so late." Mathias said. "Lane and I dropped off her groceries this morning."

"Thanks for the ride." Vic said, as she got out of the car. "Shouldn't you be at the hospital?" she asked Walt.

"Henry's there. I've got about thirty minutes and I wanted to get this crew started."

Mathias held up his hand as he left, and Walt nodded to him.

"Walt?" Vic started. "Walt?"

"What spooked you so bad?" Walt said, catching hold of her arm and making her sit down on the front steps. "I can talk to Mrs. Allred again, but it won't do any good."

"When I saw Mrs. Allred and Fluffy outside, I went to make sure that they got back home ok." Vic choked. _Great._ Now she was going to cry in front of Walt. "Boulin came by in the wrecker."

"What did he do?" Walt demanded.

"Nothing really." Vic swallowed hard, and told him what Boulin had said. "But he scared the shit out of me. If he'd opened the truck door, I'd have blown him to hell."

Walt shot her an appraising look that could have meant anything.

"I didn't shoot him, Walt. But I really wanted to." He just looked at her, and didn't say anything, and Vic went into the house to get dressed. The sooner she got away from him, the better.

Mathias had heard what Walt said about the hospital, so he figured that he had a few minutes to go in and speak to Cady without stepping on any toes. They were just wheeling her out of her room when he got there, and she gave him a big smile.

"I just wanted -" Mathias stopped. He didn't want a damn audience, and Henry and Emma were both there, as well as two orderlies. Emma gave him a grin, and she and Henry stepped farther down the hall. "I just wanted -" he gave up, leaned down to kiss her, and she grabbed a handful of his hair, yanked him down and kissed the hell out of him.

"Whoa." Mathias said. He didn't think anybody had ever kissed him like that. Certainly not anybody that mattered. He knew she was drugged out of her mind, but still -

"Once you've had an Injun you'll never go back." Cady said, and grinned at him. That's what Robert had said to tease Emma for years. It was a family joke. But when had she heard it?

Mathias watched them wheel her into the operating room, and then looked at Emma and Henry. He had put this off long enough.

"I know you two have taken over Hector's job, and you need to stop before I have to lock you up."

The look on Emma's face made him realize he'd made a very bad error in judgment. He should have waited to confront his Aunt when he was off duty. And done it at Jeanne's, because he doubted Emma would haul off and slug him in front of the kids. He couldn't let Emma hit him when he was on duty.

And God help him, if he had to arrest her, his entire family would side with her. Anything short of murder, they'd excuse - and even then it would depend on _who_ she had shot - if Emma killed Malachi, most of the folks on the Rez would stand behind her. He had seriously screwed up.

"I'm old and tired." Henry said, and Emma turned to him, confused. "Emma, please don't make me defend your honor against this young buck. I seriously fear I would get my ass kicked." He placed his hand very gently over hers.

Mathias froze, and then his radio crackled, and Inez started talking.

"I need to see what this is." He said, and walked a distance away. He listened, and when he came back, Emma was holding Henry's hand, and the two of them were looking at each other intently.

"Well, maybe I was wrong." Mathias said. "Somebody just beat the hell out of Tall Grass and painted "HECTOR LIVES" on his truck."

"Is he dead?" Emma asked.

"Emma!" Henry protested.

"He's a wife beating asshole. He deserved whatever he got."

"Can't say I disagree with you." Mathias said. "But what I said stands. You two need to stop what you're doing. You're going to get hurt or I'm going to have to arrest you."

"Rose would bake us a pie with a file in it." Emma told him.

Henry chuckled, picked up her hand and kissed it. Mathias just shook his head as her left. He would have to have his Mother talk some sense into Emma. A nurse he knew stepped out into the hallway, and he said, "Excuse me, do you know if Standing Bear has been here all night?"

"He was here when I came in at midnight. And Emma came about seven. I got the last one of the homemade cinnamon rolls that she brought." Her eyes twinkled. "Cady hasn't been by herself, if that's what you're worried about."

"Thanks." Well Henry had an alibi. Emma couldn't have beaten up Tall Grass by herself, unless he was drunk. But other than Wally, there wasn't a man alive that she and Sue couldn't take down together. And Rose would have jumped right in and helped. Why in the hell had Tommy and Robert died and left him in charge of his mother and his aunt? 

"Can you spare ten minutes for an old man?" Lucian asked, as he stepped into his lawyer's office. Lark had to be close to fifty now, but she was still the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life.

"Miss Douglas, I'm sorry!" The young receptionist scooted in behind him. "I called security!"

"Tell them not to bother. I don't want blood on my carpet." Lark laughed, walked around her desk, and hugged Lucian. "It's good to see you, you old coot."

The receptionist looked shocked, but she closed the door behind her as she left.

"It's good to see you too, honey." Lucian said huskily. The worst mistake of his life had been letting her go

"Sit down, Lu." She gestured to the chair in front of her desk. "I'm afraid I really do only have a _few_ minutes. I've got court this morning."

"I need to change my will." Lucian said as he sat down heavily, cursing the fact he was so damn old.

"I'm so sorry about Branch." When Lucian just nodded, she went on, "I looked for you at the funeral. I thought maybe you might come to the private service at the ranch. And I've been out a few times to check on Barlow's livestock, but I just seem to miss you."

Lucian reached in his jacket pocket and handed her the folded paper that he'd written everything down on. She skimmed it and looked at him questioningly, "Who's Charlie Falling Rain?"

"A paraplegic kid who got the short end of the stick."

"Ok." She looked at him worriedly.

"Am I getting any money from Barlow?"

"Luce, you know I can't discuss that."

 _She'd just told him that he was._ He removed a second paper, and handed it to her. "Since I'm old as hell, and it may take years to settle my worthless brother's estate, I need you to handle this properly. I may be dead before anything comes to me, and I need to know that Charlie and Millicent are taken care of."

"I don't see that it will be a problem."

"Do you think I could use Barlow's SUV in the meantime?" he told her about Cady's accident, and that he was one of her chauffeur's. "It will be hard for her to get in my truck."

"I think that would be alright. You and I probably need to meet and see what to do about the horses too. The cattle are alright, I think, but we should ask your friend -" she looked perplexed.

"Emma." Lucian supplied.

"That's right, I couldn't remember her name." She glanced at her watch and sighed. "Luce, I really do have to get to court."

"Can I go with you?" In years past, he'd sat in the back of the court room and listened to her try her cases with pride. She was a damn fine lawyer.

"Of course." She said, and smiled at him when he helped her with her coat and took her briefcase from her hand. Even though Lark won her case, and court convened before lunch, she still didn't look happy.

Lucian opened the car door for her, and then went around and got in the passenger seat. He didn't like to drive in city traffic.

"Would you like to go to Hawaii?" she asked him, and then burst into tears.

"I've always wanted to see the Arizona Memorial."

"Then why did you take me to Cancun?"

"Because I thought that's where you wanted to go."

"Oh, Lucian, I've messed everything up." She looked at him thru her tears. "I thought I wanted my career."

"Maybe you just need a break."

"I met a man." She sighed. "He was the only one since you that ever meant anything -"

"Do you want me to shoot him?"

The fact that Lucian most definitely _was not_ kidding, made Lark start crying again, and she leaned over and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Well if I hadn't been so damn pig headed…" Lucian said. He'd kicked himself often enough for that, over the years. He'd wanted to get married, she hadn't.

"I'd been handling some business for him. His wife called the office -" she swiped at the tears on her face. "How could I have been so stupid?"

Lucian patted her on the back. "Why don't we go find some lunch." He finally said, "And we can talk about Hawaii."

When Walt walked into the hospital, Nighthorse was standing at the admissions desk, and he thought he heard him talking about Cady.

"I've been out of town, Walt, and I just found out what happened. Cady hadn't picked up her insurance card from the office yet and I thought I could straighten that out for her."

"Thank you." Walt said, the relief on his face evident.

"My security threw Boulin out of the casino last night, and he made some threats against "my girl." I can't figure who he meant, unless it was Cady. I've got two of my guys sitting on the street outside her house. I know she's coming home tomorrow, and they'll be keeping an eye on her."

When Walt started to say something, Jacob cut him off. "I'm not having Cady hurt because of me."

"I was going to say thank you." Walt said, and stuck out his hand. "Thank you for letting my daughter pursue her dream, and for helping me protect her."

Nighthorse hesitated for a long moment, and then he reached and shook. "I still think you're the biggest SOB on this earth, but Cady is a fine woman."

"Everything good in my daughter came from her mother." Walt said simply.

Nighthorse started to say something, and then his phone rang, and he just nodded to Walt before he stepped away to answer it.

Walt headed for Cady's room, realizing that he had just shaken hands with his nemesis. _Hell had just frozen over._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Cady's in recovery." Emma said. "The doctor said she's fine and the surgery went as he expected."

"She wasn't supposed to go in yet!" Walt protested.

"I believe the Doctor has had enough of you, Walt. He said that he didn't want you here hovering over him while he was putting Cady's ankle back together." Henry said.

"Want some coffee, Walt?" Emma asked, and he suddenly noticed that she and Henry were holding hands. Henry seemed embarrassed, and he turned loose, and Emma grinned at him. "Or hot chocolate? We have plenty."

"I'll take some coffee if it's handy."

"Black, right?"

"Emma, you don't have to get me coffee."

"You want to talk to Henry. I'll be right back." She shrugged her coat on, and left.

"Henry -"

"Cady is fine, Walt."

"Nighthorse said that Boulin made some threats at the casino."

"What _kind_ of threats?"

"Against Nighthorse's girl. He assumed he meant Cady. Is Jacob seeing anyone? Do you know?"

"I know nothing about the man, Walt. But if Boulin actually threatened Cady, maybe you can lock him up?"

"He was drunk and it was nothing specific. Nighthorse has put some of his security to watching Cady's house." Walt turned red. "I _actually_ had to thank the man. I can't watch her 24/7. If I quit my job, I won't have the authority to get Boulin back behind bars for good."

"Were you thinking of quitting?"

"I've been thinking about a lot of things lately, Henry." Walt sighed. "Cady is all that matters anymore. I'm sick of being a sheriff and locking up crooks only to have them get right back out."

Vic froze when she saw the man in a deputy's uniform re-doing the sign in the office. "Can I help you?" she asked. She had no idea who Walt had hired.

"Mornin' Vic." Omar glanced over his shoulder. "I'm fillin' in 'til Wednesday. Ruby will be back then." At her confused look, "Walt already swore me in this morning. I'm his go-to for a temporary deputy. I help him any time he just needs somebody for a few days."

"Where's Lucian?" she glanced in panic at Ruby's empty desk.

"He said he had some business to take care of."

"Is he sick?"" _What was wrong with her? She didn't even like the man. But yet, she did. He was a royal pain in the ass, but when you needed him, he stepped right up and helped you out. And she had no doubt that he loved Cady and wouldn't think twice about dying to protect her."_

"I think he just had some business to take care of." Omar stepped back, looked at the board. "Did I get that straight?"

Absaroka County Sheriff's Office

Sheriff Walt Longmire

Deputy Moretti

Deputy Ferguson

Deputy O'Neal

RIP Deputy Connally

At Vic's horrified look, Omar said, "I can take it down and let Walt do it himself when he's ready. It needed to be fixed, and I'm not one to sit idle."

"I didn't know he hired Eammon." Vic swallowed hard. Great! Now she was going to have to tiptoe around Walt _and_ Eammon for the next two months.

"Yeah, he needs to hire another full time deputy too, with all the casino traffic."

"Yeah." Vic agreed. If Walt did that, she wouldn't leave him in a mess when she left. Though why she cared, was beyond her.

"Do you think you could start the coffee?" At the look on her face, "I'm a percolator man myself. I have no idea how to work that thing, and I don't want Miss Ruby mad at me because I broke her fancy coffee machine."

Vic chuckled in spite of herself. Walt and Omar had to be the two toughest men she had ever met, and neither one of them would dare touch Ruby's coffee maker. "Sure, Omar."

"Mrs. A said that you were worried that her gun wasn't legal."

"I'm more worried that she's going to shoot herself or Fluffy."

"With the arthritis in her hands, she can't keep a grip on a pistol, and she can't manage a rifle anymore. She wanted a gun, and that was the best I could do to find something she could manage."

"But it'll knock her on her ass if she shoots."

Omar grinned. "It's a .22." At Vic's shocked look, "I know! The sight of it's enough to make you wet your pants. But she can handle it just fine. It was either get her that, or worry about her buying something that she couldn't handle and would get hurt with."

"And Steve McQueen had one."

"And Steve McQueen had one." Omar agreed. "I do believe that woman would have left her husband over him."

"Do you think you could help me with my shooting? I don't know if I can afford you though." Vic bit her lip.

"I'll just charge you for ammo, and that's not cheap."

"No, I didn't mean -"

Omar cut her off. "You provide a service to the community and protect the people who can't protect themselves. I'm glad to help you. Most women, unless they're ranch raised, can't handle a rifle very well without some training." At Vic's raised eyebrow, "I'm not PC. I say what I think."

"I need some help. And I need somebody to teach me how to four wheel."

"Well Emma would be the person for that, she'll be glad to help you too. Most men just muscle a truck around. Women use skill and finesse. Emma used to compete when Robert was alive, they had a really nice old Power Wagon."

"Is she Mathias's Mom?"

"His Aunt."

"Which one of the ladies that Ruby goes to lunch with is she?" Ruby had long ago introduced her to the two of them, but Vic, to her shame, had been angry at Walt over something that day, and not paid attention.

" Rose wears dresses in town. Emma always wears ranch clothes. I don't think she's put on a dress since Robert died."

"What happened to her husband?" Vic asked, thinking it was strange that Omar hadn't just said that Rose was Native American and Emma was white.

"He had a heart attack at a team roping and died in the arena. Just fell off his horse and hit the ground, dead. I think that's the way to go, doing what you love."

"What happened to Mathias's Dad?"

"He got knifed in a bar fight." At the look of sheer horror on her face, "He was a tribal policeman. He died in the line of duty."

" _Shit!"_

"So maybe you can excuse Mathias's behavior a little bit. Just a little." Omar almost smiled. "He worshipped his Dad."

" _Shit!"_ Vic said again. She had had no idea. The people who had lived here forever all had a history that somehow tied them together. And she had _nothing._

Omar went into Walt's office and came back with two handguns. Vic tried to cover her shock as she sat down at her desk. She didn't know the combination to the small safe in Walt's office. He evidently trusted Omar enough to give it to him. But he hadn't shared it with her in the years she'd worked for him.

"I always clean guns when I'm here." Omar said, as he sat down at Ruby's desk, and opened a case that looked like he'd brought it from home. "Bout all I'm good for, I expect."

"Why are those locked up?"

Omar dropped the magazine and cleared the slide, peering down the chamber. "Evidence. You want to clean that one?"

She didn't. But Walt had evidently told Omar to clean guns. She wondered if he'd told him he was in _charge._ Walt didn't trust her. Well, she could damn well clean and oil a handgun. She knew that as soon as she got it taken apart, the phone would start ringing though.

Omar spread out a second towel for her to work on, and she pulled her chair over to join him at Ruby's desk.

"Lucian had a deputy, some years back. He was here when Walt started." Omar scratched his head. "Damn, I can't remember his name. Anyway, he cleaned out the evidence room one weekend. I don't know what in the hell he thought he was doin'. He and his girl friend wanted to go skiing and he didn't have the money. That really hurt Lucian. And then he had to track him down and lock him up. That's when he bought the safe. And he never told anybody the combination. Walt just picked up some of his habits. Doesn't mean he doesn't trust you."

"Am I that transparent, or are you a mind reader?"

"I'm an old hunter. You were upset when you came in this morning, and seeing me come out of Walt's office with these guns ramped it up again."

"Boulin came by when I was out walking Fluffy with Mrs. Allred."

"And?"

"He scared the shit out of me!" Vic flushed. "I'm supposed to be a cop. I'm a professional. I wanted to run and hide." _God, she thought she was going to start crying. What was wrong with her?_

"Well, I'd think that was just common sense. Boulin's evil, and he meant to rattle you. You have your gun?"

"I would have shot him if he'd opened the truck door."

"Good." Omar said. "I'm not scared of Boulin, but I'd never turn my back on him. And I don't want him around any of my lady friends. Hell, I don't even want him in the community. Sooner or later, he'll do something, and he'll be back in jail."

"But I shouldn't have been so scared."

"Vic, I'm afraid of grizzlies and hogs, and I'll admit it. There's nothing for you to be ashamed of."

Vic swiped at the tears that were starting and went to work cleaning the gun. She missed having Walt to talk to so much. He had been such a good friend. Well, she had thought that he was her friend. Evidently it all just been one sided. But he _had_ talked to her. She wondered what she had done to put him off so. She wondered if she was doomed to be like Lucian and old as hell and alone.

They cleaned guns all morning. Vic checked the phone twice to see that that it had a dial tone. It grated on her nerves when it was this quiet. It usually meant that all hell was fixing to break loose. She and Omar wouldn't be able to handle things, and she'd have to call Ferg and Eammon to come in. Cady was supposed to be released from the hospital tomorrow afternoon, and Vic figured that Walt would stay out at least that long. She hadn't gone to see Cady, but she had called her twice. She was avoiding Walt as much as possible.

By lunchtime, all the guns in the safe had been cleaned and locked back up, and the phone still hadn't rung _at all._

"Why don't you go on to lunch?" Vic said to Omar. "Everything's going to go to sugar, I know it, and neither one of us will get to eat."

Omar chuckled. "Want me to bring you a sandwich back?"  
"Yeah, that'd be fine."

Once Omar left, Vic dialed the office phone from her cell phone, just to make sure that it was actually working. Then she went and got a shotgun from the gun rack and started cleaning it. She stopped and ate her lunch when Omar came back. By 5 pm, they had cleaned all the long guns, Omar had swept the floor, and Vic had taken the coffee maker apart and scrubbed it.

Before, she had enjoyed days like this once in awhile. They were a rare reprieve from the days when nothing stopped and you could never get caught up on your paperwork. Omar asked Vic if she want him to stay until 6, but she told him to go on home.

Ferg and Eammon both arrived at 5:45, and Ferg walked Vic out to her truck.

"The phone didn't ring once. _All day._ " Vic said to Ferg.

"Oh, well, it'll make the night go faster."

Walt was re-doing the sign that Omar had so painstaking worked on. It figured. He wouldn't do something himself, but when someone else tried to do it for him, it wasn't good enough.

"Mornin' Walt." Vic said from behind him, then, "Your hired _another_ deputy?"

He wasn't re-doing Omar's work. Under Eammon's name, "Deputy Arrow" had been added.

"Yeah." Walt said, without turning around.

"Do you need me to switch to nights so you can train him?"

"You aren't working nights until I get Boulin put back behind bars."

"That's not fair to the guys -" Vic started.

Walt whirled around. " _I'm the sheriff here. I make the rules and I decide when you work. IS THAT CLEAR?"_

Vic took a step back. "Ah, yeah, Walt, sure. I'll go start the coffee." She wanted to tell him that she quit. She wanted to tell him to go to hell, and that she wished she'd never come to this god forsaken place.

Her hands were shaking and it took her forever to get the coffee started. It would be really inconsiderate of her to leave Cady in a lurch while she was on crutches. But the truth was, she was almost completely broke. Shaun had always handled their finances, and they'd lived for the moment and not saved anything, just had a good time. She didn't even have a vehicle of her own. If she told Walt off, and quit, she couldn't leave. She was well and truly stuck. Unless she called her Dad and asked him to send her plane fare back to Philly - hell, she hadn't even told her parents that she and Shaun had divorced.

The phone rang and she couldn't understand what the crying teenager was saying, and then someone else took the phone. Vic wrote down the information, thinking, "Great! I'm going to go out and write a report on stolen chickens!" At least it would get her away from Walt and the office.

"Miss?" The woman said, "I don't know if you understand or not. These aren't just laying chickens. They're _show_ chickens, and they're worth at least six hundred dollars. They're my daughters college fund, and they're family pets."

"I'm on my way." Vic said, thinking, _"Who in the hell would pay that kind of money for a chicken?"_ She didn't have time to Google it, but she would tonight, she decided. She shrugged into her coat, and looked wistfully at the coffee that was just starting to brew. At least it would be ready for Omar.

"Where are you going?" Walt demanded.

"Stolen chickens." Vic said, handing him the paper that she'd scribbled the woman's name and address on. If he told her that she wasn't capable of looking for chickens, she was liable to haul off and belt him.

"Shit!" Walt said, handing her the post- it back. "Vic, be nice to these people. Those chickens are Kay's college fund. They're worth a lot of money. The Dad died last year and the family is really struggling."

"You want to go?" Vic asked, thinking that since he _knew_ them, maybe he did. But then, hell, he knew everybody in the damn county.

"You handle it. But make sure that you _actually_ look for those chickens."

In times past, they hadn't. But most of the time, then, it had been Hector taking the chickens. Hector usually paid for what he took. And Vic didn't think he'd ever eaten a chicken that was a valued part of somebody's family.

Shaking her head, she headed out the door.

Once she'd filled out the report, she wished that she'd made Walt come with her. Kay, the young woman the chickens belonged to, and Kenda, her mother, were both in tears. The four cages that the chickens had been taken from had the doors ripped off the hinges. Vic figured that the cages were worth some money themselves, and she jotted that down in her notes.

"Anybody from school mad at you, or jealous of your chickens?" Vic asked the girl.

"Kay, go get dressed. You've already missed the bus and I'll be late for work time I get you to school." Kenda said, before she could answer.

"What if they come back?" The tears pouring down the girl's face made Vic almost physically sick. "What if they take my horse next time? Mom, what am I going to do?"

"Go get dressed." Kenda repeated firmly, and the girl finally headed for the house.

"Do you have a neighbor who could keep an eye on the place while you're at work?" Vic asked.

"Everybody works." Kenda said, and she just looked utterly defeated.

"Is there somebody that she shows against that might have taken the chickens?" Vic tried again.

Kenda looked like she was going to collapse. "Everybody in the community has helped us since my husband died. We're so close to bankrupt it's not even funny. If some _idiot_ took those chickens and _ate_ them - " she choked on a sob, then gestured to the remaining chickens in a big coop. "They could have taken all of my layers and we could have survived that." And then she just sat down on the ground and cried.

Vic patted her on the shoulder, thinking she was going to throw up herself. She had no idea what to do, where to start, or anything else. And then she saw the tennis shoe print in the mud. Kay and Kenda both had on rubber boots.

"Are those your tennis shoe tracks?" She pointed.

Kenda shook her head. "We only have boots." She swiped at her face, and Vic helped her stand up. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's ok." Vic said softly. "And I will do everything I can to find your chickens." She watched Kenda head into the house. _She had thought that she had problems. She only had to deal with a stupid, hard headed man who had broken her heart to pieces and stomped on it. He hadn't died and left her in a mess with a kid to raise and money troubles and god knows what else._

She started following the tracks, keeping a careful eye on the horses in the pasture. A few of them raised their heads and watched her, but they all kept their distance. If she lost the trail, she would call Henry, she decided. The worst he could do was laugh at her. But somehow, she knew he wouldn't. These people needed their chickens back. She needed to find them, or at least find the person who had stolen them. The cops she'd worked with in Philly would have laughed their asses off.

Vic climbed thru the pasture fence, thankful for the mud that made tracking a sure thing. Until she fell down and skidded on her butt for about twenty feet. She pulled her phone from her coat pocket to check that she hadn't broken it when she fell, and to make sure the ringer was off. And then she smelled woodsmoke, that she thought was coming from a campfire. She could follow the trail or she could cut thru the brush straight to the fire. It might already be too late for the chickens, but she opted for going thru the brush.

There were four men sitting around the fire and they were passing around a bottle and she could smell meat cooking. There were chicken feathers scattered all around. She wanted to just charge in and shoot all of them, but she took a deep breath. There was no way she could take down all of them by herself, even if they were drunk. She was too late to save the chickens, but she would _damn_ _sure_ get all those men to jail and see that they paid restitution. She didn't think there was enough money in the world to pay for the emotional damage they'd done.

She backed away, called Omar, and told him she needed back up, read off the coordinates from her phone, and sat down to wait, after she turned her phone back off. She didn't want it ringing and alerting the men to her presence before Omar got there.

She was so intent on watching the chicken thieves that she didn't even hear Omar and she nearly jumped out of her skin when he put a hand on her arm. She gestured that she would work her way around to the other side of the fire, and Omar shook his head, patted the rifle he had. He was annoyed. He motioned for Vic to be quiet, then stood up and bellowed, "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST! FACE DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW!"

They all jumped up and started running, and Omar fired a shot that Vic swore was only half an inch from one of the guy's feet. He dropped immediately to the ground and the man closest to him did the same.

"Shit!" Vic said, as she started after the two runners. Omar fired a shot that took the bark off the tree in front of them and they turned back to her. She tackled one of them. Even though her anger was adrenaline fueled, she realized that the guy was a lot bigger and stronger than she was, and he was going to beat the shit out of her. She felt her cheek split open and blood start to pour everywhere, and then suddenly the guy was off her, moaning and holding his ribs. Omar was clutching his rifle, and he'd gone from being mildly annoyed to mad as hell.

"You move." He said, and it seemed to be directed at the two guys behind them, "And I will _kill_ you."

Vic struggled to her feet, and she managed to get the guy she'd been fighting with cuffed. She thought she was going to black out. Omar had already cuffed his man, and he threw the two who hadn't run a pair of real handcuffs. "Cuff yourselves together." He said in a voice that left no room for argument.

"Check that bag." Omar said, and Vic suddenly noticed the feed sack on the ground. It contained a somewhat, worse for wear chicken, but at least it was alive. Vic cradled the sack in her arms, and let the chicken stick its head out.

"You need to keep it warm." Omar said.

She unzipped her coat, and stuck chicken, sack, and all inside, and managed to zip it back up. At least they'd managed to save one of the chickens, though she didn't know if it was going to live.

Omar gestured with the rifle and the men moved out in front of them. "You ok, Vic?"

She looked at him. He had a welling bruise on his cheek and a black eye. She _was not_ ok. She hadn't even had any coffee this morning, but she was afraid that if she did black out, that Omar would just shoot all the men. He was mad. She didn't know him very well, but she had a feeling that he would have absolutely no problem killing the chicken thieves and leaving them for the buzzards.

When they made it back to the trucks, Omar told the two that were cuffed together to get in the back of his truck, and then he took another pair of handcuffs and locked them to the truck bed. He put the other two men in the back of Vic's truck and did the same thing.

"Stop off at the vet's first, Vic." He said. "Tell Doc Ramsey to try and save that chicken and send me the bill."

"Ok." Vic said, wondering how in the hell she was going to get in the truck and not drop the chicken, but Omar just took her keys from her, unlocked the door, and then boosted her into the seat. She didn't have time to protest, and as angry as he was, she was a little afraid to. "I'm sorry." She said.

"For what?"

"You got hurt."

Omar shrugged, and she saw the concern in his eyes. "You sure you're ok to drive?"

"Yeah." Vic said, "Thanks." She followed Omar until she turned off on the road that led to the vet's office. Idly wondered if he was going to shoot his two prisoners before he got them locked in a cell.

She nearly fell when she tried to get out of the truck and not drop the chicken. "I need some help please." She said as she walked up to the reception desk.

Emma and several men were sitting in the waiting room and she heard Emma's gasp of horror a half a second before every man in the room was on their feet.

"For the chicken. It's Kay Werner's. It's hurt -" Vic said, and then wondered why everything was starting to spin.

She dimly heard Emma say, "Shit!"

And a man's voice, "I got you, little lady. It's alright. Nobody's gonna hurt you."

She started to struggle, felt a woman's gentle touch, and she thought it was Emma who said, "Vic, it's alright. Let me have the chicken so the vet can work on it. You're ok."

The smelling salts under her nose brought her around, and she panicked when she realized that she was stretched out on a table in an exam room.

"Victoria! Be still!" Emma's voice, again, and she froze.

"The chicken!" she wailed, realizing she was crying, and she just _didn't give a shit._

"I think she'll be alright!" somebody called from another room, and Vic breathed a sigh of relief.

"Vic, look at me!" Emma ordered. " _Are you shot?_ Where are you hurt?"

Emma was holding a wad of gauze to her face, another woman had unzipped her coat and was patting her down thoroughly. Vic figured that if she didn't answer they'd have no problem peeling her out of all her clothing to check.

"Just my face." Vic managed. "Bled a lot." She looked around the room at all the people who had come to her aid. "Sorry." She managed.

"How many fingers?" A woman with a sharp voice asked, and Vic struggled to read her name tag, which just wouldn't quite focus. "Two." She finally said, and then for some reason she thought it was hilariously funny that a veterinarian was working on her, and started laughing.

She missed the quick anxious look that Emma exchanged with Dr. Ramsey, and winced when the vet started probing in her hair.

"You hit your head when you fell, didn't you?" the vet demanded.

At the exact same time, Emma said, "You didn't eat this morning, did you?"

"Yes and no." Vic said, still laughing.

"Call an ambulance." Dr. Ramsey said.

"I can get her to the hospital before it even gets here." Emma said. Looks were exchanged that Vic didn't understand, and then the man who had picked her up before came back to the table.

"I'm just gonna help you in Emma's truck, little lady. Nobody's gonna hurt you." He said, and very gently picked her up and carried her outside.

"My prisoners!" Vic said, as they passed her truck.

"They ain't goin' nowhere." The big man said, as he carefully sat her in the passenger side of Emma's truck and fastened her seat belt. "You tell Miss Emma if you feel sick, ok?"

"Thank you." Vic said.

"Hold on, Vic." Emma said, as she climbed in the huge truck. "And do tell me if you feel sick."

"I'm not gonna puke in your truck."

"This is _Wally's_ truck. He hauls calves and colts and everything else in it." Emma said, and then thought there was no need to explain to Vic that Wally had insisted she drive the western hauler if she went anywhere alone. Aside from the fact that it was huge, it had welded pipe bumpers, front and rear. It would be next to impossible to run off the road if any fool oil field workers decided to mess with her.

"Well." The big man said as he propped against the side of Vic's truck. "Which one of you brave boys hit that little lady?"

Walt stood guard while Omar unchained the prisoners. "Where's Vic?" He demanded, as the shivering men stumbled up the stairs. He'd wait until he had them locked in their cells before he demanded of Omar if she was hurt.

"We got one of the chickens back. I had her run it by the vet to see if she could save it."

"You ok?" Walt gestured to Omar's rapidly purpling cheekbone.

"Yeah. Vic got her face busted open and she looks pretty bad."

The phone started ringing then, and Walt answered it, listened, then said, "Thanks." He looked at Omar. "Vic fainted in the vet's office, and Emma took her to the hospital. They think she's got a concussion. We need to go get her prisoners before Doc Ramsey castrates them."

"I seriously hope that woman never gets mad at me." Omar said as they headed downstairs.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Leave it alone." A male voice said, as Vic reached to pull at the bandage on her face. Her hand was caught, and gently moved away.

"W—W- Walt?" she finally managed, realizing she was in the hospital, and had an IV in her other arm.

"Sorry, tough girl. _Mathias_." He moved closer so she could see him. "You want me to call the nurse?"

"No." she struggled. "What happened?"

"You and Omar rescued Chicken Little and got your butts kicked by some thieves." She missed the wink he gave her.

 _God, if she could move, she would get up and kick his ass! She hurt in places that she hadn't really known that she had places._ She groaned, fumbled around for the bed controls.

"You want to sit up?"

She tried to nod, and fireworks went off in her head. "Oh, shit." She couldn't even protest when he raised the bed to a sitting position for her. She did not want _Mathias_ being nice to her. She didn't want anyone - well, maybe Emma, and that great big guy who called her "little lady" had been very kind. Walt didn't care that she was hurt.

"Emma stayed as long as she could, but she promised Wally she'd be back before dark, and she had a sick calf to get medicine for. Can I get you anything?"

"Some water." She hated to ask for that, but her mouth felt like it was full of dirt.

Mathias held the glass for her. "Just open your mouth." He said, effortlessly sliding the straw between her lips.

"Thanks." Vic said, and that was a struggle.

"They let Cady go home this afternoon. I dropped my Mom off to stay with her for a few days, and Mrs. Allred and Fluffy are there too. And Leo - he works for Nighthorse, I don't know if you know him or not. Cady's well taken care of. Walt'll probably be back as soon as he's sure she's settled. He was here earlier, but you were asleep." Mathias didn't know if that was true or not, but she just looked so lost and frightened. "Omar was here too. He brought you a rose." He reached and held up the vase where she could see it. "Want me to read the card to you?"

"No." Vic shook her head, and thought she was going to pass out from the pain. Walt didn't give a shit about her. It was just that plain and simple. He didn't care. She _was not_ going to cry in front of Mathias.

She heard someone come quietly in the door, and Ferg said, "Thanks, Mathias. Walt didn't want Vic to be alone. I got here as fast as I could." Then he noticed that Vic was awake. "I'm sorry you got hurt." He looked like he was going to burst into tears.

"It's 'kay." Vic managed, and tried to grin at him.

"I need to talk to Mathias for a minute, and I'll be right back." Ferg looked at her worriedly. "Can I get you anything?"

"I'm fine." She thought if she shook her head again, she would die.

"What's up, Ferg?" Mathias asked as they stepped into the hallway.

"Do you remember Laughing Bird?"

"Refresh my memory."

"She was my age. Two years behind you and Cady and school. She went missing - and they said she ran away."

"She hung out with Jeanne. I haven't thought about her in years."

"She was my friend. She wouldn't have just _run away._ I know her grandmother was mean as hell to her, but she would never have left her dog like that."

"Damn." Mathias thought. All Ferg had to do was say that, and he had a picture of the girl and her big goofy dog in his head. The dog had probably been one of Fluffy's ancestors. He realized that Ferg was still talking.

"I always said that if I ever got to be a cop that I would look for her. And I didn't. I let her down." Ferg stopped, struggled for words. "I think Arlo Boulin killed her. Maybe she was his first? Nobody bothered to look for her, but _me._ My Mom drove me all over the Rez for weeks, and when my Dad was home we'd hike out and search. Can I look at your files, just so I have someplace to start?"

"Sure, you can look at anything I've got. I can have Inez send it to you tomorrow."

Ferg looked shocked that Mathias had agreed, and then he swallowed hard. "Walt told me to pay attention to the kids. Sissy said, and this may just be Sissy running her mouth, but she said that Arlo killed Arlen. Could I look at the robbery files from the Dino Mart too?"

"Arlo killed Arlen." Mathias mulled over that. Arlo was more than capable of killing his twin brother. There had been so many people shooting in the parking lot that night it was a miracle that only Arlen had died.

"It's stupid, huh?" Ferg flushed.

"No, you may be right. I'll have Inez send you anything on Boulin she can find, and tell everyone in the office you can access any of our cold cases any time you want."

"Thanks, Mathias." Ferg leaned closer and whispered, "Is Vic really upset?"

"I think she's worried about her face." Mathias whispered back, and then froze.

Ferg looked over his shoulder to see Mark Arrow, the new deputy, approaching, and narrowly managed to hide that grin that had started. Mathias did not care for Mark.

Mark nodded to both of them. "I just came by to pay my respects to the lady. Is she awake?" When Ferg nodded, he stepped into Vic's room.

"Miss Victoria, I'm Mark Arrow. I'll be working with you now. I just wanted to stop in and introduce myself." He twisted his cowboy hat in his hands.

"You're related to Lane." She said. It was just a guess, but he had Lane's easy manner, and she liked him instantly, the same way she had Lane. And he was drop dead gorgeous. It took a second look for her to realize that he wasn't full blooded Native American as she had thought.

"Yes, ma'am. We're cousins. I'm real sorry you got hurt. Can I get you anything before I head into work?"

"No, I'm fine, but thank you."

He nodded to her again, and left, spoke briefly to Ferg and Mathias in the hall, and then Ferg stuck his head back in the room. "Vic, I'm out here if you need me. Just holler."

"Ferg, come in!" When he stepped inside and looked sheepish, she said, "You were going to stay outside my room all night?"

"I didn't think you'd want me in here."

She gestured for him to sit down. "Find something funny on the tv."

"Ok." Ferg said, turning it on. "I brought you a sandwich if you're hungry. Omar came by to see you earlier, but you were asleep. He's pretty upset that you didn't tell him you were hurt."

Vic shrugged, and that made the fireworks in her head start going off again. "Everything just went black. The chicken! Is the chicken ok?" _God, she had gotten the shit beat out of her and she was worried about a chicken. She'd never been close to one of the things before. It had seemed to know that she wasn't going to hurt it, and had settled right down once she'd bundled it into her coat, and made little cooing, happy noises._

"The chicken's fine. Emma and Doc Ramsey have some kind of "in" with the judge, and I've never seen him so mad. Emma sent him a picture of you passed out in her truck and somebody else sent him one of you falling on the floor in the vet office. He garnished those guys wages from the oil field to pay for all the damages, and they've already found Kay some replacement chickens. Wally took her cages home to fix them."

"I screwed up."

"I don't know how you think that you screwed up."

"I just - I screwed up. It was stupid of me to get hurt."

"Omar said you wanted to do things differently and he just charged in and did things the way he and Walt always did, and that it was his fault you got hurt."

"No." Vic said. Then, "No, I don't want him thinking that."

"He brought you a rose." Ferg gestured to it on the bedside table. "You want me to read you the card?"

"Sure." Vic said. She didn't want Mathias being nice to her. He made her uncomfortable. But Ferg was just _Ferg._

"I'm so sorry that you got hurt. The Doctor said that you wouldn't have a scar, but if you do, I'll pay for the surgeon to fix it. Omar."

"Jesus!" Vic said, struggling to sit up, and wondering why she was crying. "I'm not worried about my face! Walt doesn't want me -" she froze in horror at what she had just said.

Ferg looked like he was going to cry too. "The Doctor said you could have half a sandwich and some hot chocolate."

"What'd you bring me?" Vic asked. They would both pretend that she hadn't said anything.

"Ham and cheese." Ferg spread out a small towel on her lap, and handed her a sandwich bag containing half a sandwich cut into quarters. "Can you manage that ok?"

"Yeah, thanks." She took a bite as he poured her some hot chocolate. "What is this?" She thought it was the most delicious thing she'd ever tasted, and she couldn't figure out what kind of sandwich spread was on the bread.

"I've got canned elk, if you don't like it." Ferg said, misunderstanding.

"It's _good!_ But I don't know what it is."

"That's _real_ cheese. Goat and cow." At Vic's confused look, he continued, "Sue made it. And the cook made the bread. You eat _good_ at Emma's. That's probably one of the reasons nobody ever quits."

"You're really going to eat that?" Vic gestured at Ferg's sandwich.

"Sure. You want a taste?"

Vic started to say "no", then decided _what the hell?_ Ferg pulled the bread apart, and to her, the meat looked like stewed beef. She pulled a small piece loose, and popped it in her mouth hesitantly.

"Here." Ferg picked up the trash can. "If you don't like it, you can spit it out."

" _Damn!_ That's good too!" Vic looked longingly at the sandwich, having finished hers off.

"The Doctor said you could only have half a sandwich." Ferg reminded her. "If you get sick, you're gonna have to stay in here a couple days."

"Did Emma shoot that?" She gestured for Ferg to eat his dinner.

He shook his head. "Wally and a couple of the other hands hunt. Emma doesn't like to kill animals. She will if she _has_ to, if they're sick or too old to be comfortable anymore. Elk are a big problem for the ranchers around here. They rip up the horses and cattle with their antlers and run them off their food."

A female voice asked from the door. "Is it ok if we come in for a minute?

"Sure." Ferg said. "Vic, you remember Kay and Kenda from this morning?"

She didn't think she'd ever forget the two women, though she couldn't remember their names. She wondered just _how_ hard she had hit her head.

"I'm really sorry that you got hurt." Kay said. She looked like she'd been crying. "And thank you for saving my chicken, Little's my favorite."

" _You and Omar rescued Chicken Little."_ The chicken's _name_ was Little. Maybe Mathias hadn't been being an ass.

Ferg sensed that Kenda wanted to say something to Vic, but not in front of her daughter. "Want some of Emma's hot chocolate?" he asked, holding up the thermos. "We'll have to go down to the nurse's station to get you a cup."

"Mom?"

Kenda nodded her permission, and Kay leaned down and hugged Vic very carefully. "Thank you." She said again, and followed Ferg down the hall.

Vic wondered how she was crying herself, and then Kenda leaned down and hugged her too. "If I'd been thinking this morning instead of in hysterics, I would have noticed those tracks myself. And I would have killed those men." She swallowed hard. "The last thing my daughter needs is for her Mom to be in prison for murder. I'm _so sorry_ you got hurt."

Vic put her arms around the woman and hugged her back awkwardly. "I'm ok. Hey, I get a couple days off and room service. And a nice man to wait on me." _But not the man she wanted. She doubted that Walt had even stuck his head in the door. No matter what Mathias had said._

Ferg poured Kenda some hot chocolate too, and they stayed for a few minutes and chatted. He gave Kay a big bag of cookies that he had in his lunch sack and her eyes lit up like it was Christmas. Vic had a feeling that she didn't get treats very often.

"You ok, Vic?" Ferg asked when they had left.

"Maybe I didn't screw up so bad after all." She looked at the tv. "Do you have to be full blooded Native American to be a tribal cop?"

"You want to go to work for Mathias?" Ferg asked teasingly.

"I just wondered why Mark came to our office."

"He and Mathias don't get along."

"Because they're both gorgeous?" Vic guessed, then thought, " _God, how hard did that guy hit me?"_

Ferg laughed out loud. "I'm going to tell the Doctor you said that. He said I was supposed to keep an eye on you and see if you did anything strange." At the look Vic gave him, he laughed again. "No, Mark beat the shit out of Mathias a couple times when we were kids."

"Why?"

"Mark's sister had a thing for Mathias. She's a nice girl, but she was fat, like me. And Mathias wasn't very kind to her." Ferg grinned. "The joke was on him though. She came with Mark to visit their grandmother. She's a stone cold fox now. And she's still a really nice girl. She asked me to keep an eye on Mark."

"What's wrong with Mark?"

"He did two tours of Afghanistan. He and his fiancé were saving up to buy the ranch next to Emma's. She was hit and killed by a drunk driver the week before he came home."

"Shit!" Vic said. "That poor guy!" _Even though Walt didn't love her, she didn't think she could survive if anything happened to him._ "So he grew up here too?"

Ferg shook his head. "He and his sister would come and spend the summer with his grandmother on the Rez though. He's a really good guy, and he knows the area. Plus he speaks Cheyenne."

 _No wonder Walt had hired him and had no problem putting him straight to work at night._

"It's a shame he wasn't here earlier. Then we wouldn't have had to put poor Zachery through that." Ferg continued.

"Have you talked to Zachery?"

"No." Ferg flushed. "I wasn't very nice to him and I still feel bad about it."

"I wasn't nice to him either." Vic said. "And a lot of times I'm not very nice to you."

Ferg turned even redder, if that was possible. "Don't worry about it."

"Tonight's your night off, isn't it? And Walt made you come babysit me."

"Actually, I volunteered." Ferg looked at her worriedly. "I've been trying to help Beth with her schoolwork. She's a smart girl, but she just can't _get it._ I don't know what to do. I needed a break."

"Does she try too hard?"

"Yeah. One hundred and ten percent and wide open. Just like Emma and her Mom do."

"I thought Emma could do anything." Vic said tiredly.

"Except cook." Ferg said, and then he realized that she was already asleep.

"She awake?" Walt asked quietly from the door, as he and Omar stepped inside.

Ferg shook his head. "She ate her sandwich and she wanted more, but I just gave her what the Doctor said she could have."

"Damn." Omar said, looking at Vic's face. He looked as if he was going to start crying. Walt just looked annoyed.

"She's more upset about _you_ than she is her face." Ferg told Omar. "How's your eye?" Pointing at the patch the man was sporting. That and the fact that the entire left side of his face was turning black made him downright scary.

"Hurts like hell. I can't get the eye drops in by myself so I'm goin' home with Walt."

"Least I could do." Walt said, and looked miserable. "We're gonna stop by the Pony and grab some dinner. It's been one hell of a long day."

"Rose is taking me to the specialist tomorrow." Omar looked embarrassed. "Emma and Sue will take over at Cady's for the day, and if Vic can go home, they'll get her settled in too. Damn, I made a mess of things."

"Not nearly the mess that would have happened if Kay and Kenda had gone after those guys themselves." Ferg said.

Omar just looked defeated. "Thanks, Ferg. I owe you." He said simply.

"Ferg, if Boulin comes in here -" Walt started.

"If Boulin steps foot in that door, I'll shoot him." Ferg said. "And if I have to go to jail, well, that's ok."

Walt looked at him tiredly, and then he just kind of nodded to Ferg, and he and Omarleft.

The Doctor took his time poking and prodding at Vic, and shining a pen light in her eyes, and asking her what she thought were stupid questions. "Ok." He finally said. "I'm letting you go home. But the _only_ reason you're going is that I have a hospital full of patients with pneumonia, and the last thing I need is you coming down with that. " He looked at Vic sternly. "I'm sending instructions home with you, and if you don't eat and do what you're told, you're coming right back. You can watch tv if you want, but no reading. If you don't have any problems, I want to see you back here next Tuesday."

"What! I have to go back to work!" Vic yelled at him.

"If you don't start eating, you're going to be _dead._ " The Doctor blasted her right back. "You're anemic. You're underweight. You wouldn't have passed out if you'd had some breakfast. I bet you didn't have any dinner the night before either, did you?"

Vic looked at him, stricken. She honestly didn't remember. "I shared a pack of crackers with Fluffy when we were watching Steve McQueen." She finally said.

"Which means, you had one, and he ate the other five." The man almost smiled. "I've dined with Fluffy before."

"Yeah." Vic said. _Don't argue with the man, she told herself. Just let him say whatever he wants and agree with him so you can get the hell out of here._

"Vic." The Doctor was scribbling on his chart and not looking at her. "It's only sheer luck that you didn't pass out earlier and leave Omar in a damn mess. Now, I have no doubt he would have gotten those men by himself, but somebody would have gotten shot. If you don't care about yourself, care about the guys you work with."

Vic choked on her tears, and tried not to start sobbing. She heard him stop in the hall and start a conversation with someone right outside her door.

Then a woman she didn't know stepped inside. "Ready to go home?" she asked cheerfully. "I'm Sue. I work with Emma." She grinned at Vic. "You'll feel better once we get out of this damn hospital."

Before Vic had half a clue, Sue had her dressed in street clothes, an old soft worn flannel shirt that felt heavenly, another wool shirt buttoned over that, and her jeans. Sue was lacing her boots when Emma stepped inside, a worried look on her face.

"I don't know if I thanked you yesterday." Vic said to Emma. "You and that big man -"

"Frank Charles." Emma supplied and the worried look vanished and she grinned at Sue.

"I believe that Frank had prayer with that jackass that hit you." Sue said.

"I didn't know he was a preacher." Vic flushed. "Did I have a cussing fit in front of him?"

The two of them laughed, noticed Vic's puzzlement, and laughed again.

Finally Emma said, "Now this is off the record, but in this case "had prayer" means Frank beat the shit out of him. He said he figured him chained up was about even to him hitting _you,_ as little as you are. And Doc Ramsey came out and told both those guys that if they ever hurt another woman in this county, that she would castrate them."

"I do believe she had the emasculators in her hand when she said it." Sue said, and she and Emma dissolved into helpless laughter again. The look of sheer horror on Vic's face made them laugh more. Vic thought they laughed halfway to Cady's house. If she lived in this god forsaken place the rest of her life, she would never understand these people.

"Vic, I'm so sorry you got hurt!" Cady said, looking at her worriedly.

"Are you alright, sweetie?" Mrs. Allred asked at almost the same time. Fluffy made a beeline for Vic, and she said, "NO!" which he ignored. Sue made a sharp gesture with her hand, and he sat down with a thud.

"Well," Vic thought. "That's interesting. He _minds_ Sue. I bet he would mind Emma too."

"You want to go to bed, or you want to lie on the couch and hang out with us?" Emma asked.

"I'm sorry I'm so much trouble." Vic managed. "But I think I need to go to bed for awhile." It was unbelievable how much the car ride had exhausted her.

"Matty was afraid he upset you yesterday." Cady said.

"I didn't know the chicken's name was Little." Vic stumbled a little, and Emma tightened her hold on her.

"We'll just get you tucked back into bed." Sue said, leading the way into Vic's room.

"I'm sorry." Vic said again, when Emma helped her sit down on the bed, and Sue started unlacing her boots.

"It really hurts when you get your ass kicked and then it hurts again when you can't do anything for yourself." Emma said, and a look and a grin passed between her and Sue.

"Just promise me you won't be as bad a patient as Emma is." Sue said, as the two of them slid her into bed and covered her up.

Fluffy evidently figured that since Sue's attention was elsewhere, he didn't have to mind, and he put his front feet up on the bed and leaned in towards Vic with his nose twitching, and then backed away with his eyes wide. He went back into the living room quickly.

Seeing the confusion on Vic's face, Emma said, "You smell like medicine. He hates going to the vet."

They got Vic up at lunch time and she couldn't believe that she had slept nearly the whole morning away. Or how exhausted she still was. They had homemade bread and some kind of soup that had a lot of meat and vegetables in it. She polished off two bowls and was embarrassed to admit she would have eaten more.

They settled Vic on the couch with Mrs. Allred and a soap opera on the tv. Cady was working on her computer and Emma and Sue went to clean up the kitchen. Fluffy went with them in hopes of some food.

A truck pulled up outside, and Vic could hear a woman yelling. Emma came out of the kitchen in a hurry, and Rose nearly knocked her down when she opened the front door. Walt followed her inside, bumping the snow off his boots.

"Now, Rose -" he started.

"He's a hard headed asshole. Just like you! He's going to lose his eye!" Rose was so mad that she was shaking, and she was starting to cry.

" Rose, he's not going to do anything but monitor the radio for me. We'll make sure that he gets the drops in his eyes every 4 hours like the Doctor said -"

"And if you have a damn emergency he'll be right out there with you and you know it!" Rose shot back, taking her boots off and throwing them towards the fireplace. Sue stepped out of the kitchen with flour on her hands and Rose headed in her direction.

"If I have an emergency, I'll call Math-" Walt slammed his mouth shut, too late. _That was not the thing to say to Rose, as upset as she was._

"Oh, wonderful!" she yelled at him. "You endanger my son and the man I love -" she stopped, looked horrified.

"Rose, why don't you just go ahead and marry Omar?" Walt asked, and then realized from the looks he got from all of them, that he was in _big_ trouble.

Rose all but ran into the kitchen.

Emma turned to Walt. "Martha may have given you a pass for being an insensitive asshole, but you're not getting one from me. Would you like another busted lip?"

Walt glared at her, and for half a second, Vic thought that he and Emma _were_ really going to fight. Then he said, "I've worn out my welcome here. Do you want me to bring in some more wood before I go?"

"Dad!" Cady said. "Dad, I'm sorry, but is Smokey ok? The weather's fixing to turn bad."

"I forgot to tell you. Lane and Jeanne took all the horses to their place. Smokey went with all his pajamas, so he'll be fine." Walt tried to grin at his daughter. "Mrs. Nez and Mark's grandmother went to stay with Lane's parents."

"Shit!" Emma said, and she and Sue both grabbed their coats. Vic thought that Walt must have just said something really important, they were in a big hurry.

"I'll take care of Omar as best I can." Walt said, looking at Emma. "And he will not be going out on any calls. Hell, if the damn jail catches on fire, I'll tell him to go down to the Busy Bee. OK?"

"You let anything happen to him, and Wally will be having a word with you." Sue warned.

Rose was banging something on the cabinet and crying, and Vic shot a worried look into the kitchen. Mrs. Allred sighed and shook her head and Cady looked like she was going to start crying too.

"Mrs. A, can we raid your pantry?" Emma asked.

"Of course, dear, that's what it's for."

"Come on, Vic. You need some air." Emma said, hustling Vic into her boots and coat before she could protest. Sue put Fluffy on a leash and they headed for Mrs. Allred's house. Vic dimly remembered an earlier conversation about cherry pie, and she assumed they were going to retrieve some ingredients.

"How long do you think Rose's going to beat on Walt's head?" Emma asked Sue.

"Let's give her twenty minutes. I hope she doesn't break Cady's kitchen cabinet."

Vic looked at them in amused horror. She had realized that Rose was angry, but she hadn't figured out that she was taking her fury out on a pie crust.

"I don't understand -" Vic started. Actually, there was a whole lot she didn't understand, but curiosity got the better of her. "Do horses really wear pajamas?"

Sue and Emma both laughed, and Sue said. "They have sheets and blankets and turn out rugs. Walt calls them pajamas."

Vic was now more confused than ever, and Emma said, "Smokey's old. It takes a lot of food to keep him healthy. He would burn up too many calories trying to stay warm, if he didn't have some help. Jeanne will keep him in the barn and make sure he's dressed appropriately. I'll show you some pictures on the internet when we get back."

"If it's still up." Sue said, looking at the sky. It had been snowing off and on all morning.

They sat Vic down at Mrs. Allred's kitchen table and Sue started going thru cabinets.

"You better find those damn C-A-T-S." Sue spelled out to Emma.

"We'll crate 'em and take 'em back in the jeep." Emma said. She went back down the hall and started shaking something that sounded to Vic like food in a bag. It certainly got Fluffy's attention, but Sue had told him to "stay" when she let go of his leash, and he did.

"Vic, can you help me so I don't have to get up and down?" Sue asked. She moved a chair over next to Vic's and sat a milk crate on it. "Just sit the jars in it next to each other." She got back down in the lower cabinets and handed jars to Vic. When they'd filled up one milk crate, she sat it up on top of the cabinet and they started another.

"Do you think it's going to storm?" Vic asked.

"If Mrs. Nez left her house, it's going to storm like hell." Sue said. "There is no doubt about it."

"But I don't think the forecast said anything." Vic protested. She'd long ago realized that Walt kept a constant check on the weather, so she'd picked up the habit too, though she didn't really know why. She had realized that full moons did tend to make people crazy though.

"Mrs. Nez could put any weatherman to shame."

"What will we do?" Vic asked. She'd been thru a blizzard before, with Walt and Ferg at the office. Walt had sent Ruby home, and Lucian had manned the phones for them. She couldn't remember where Branch was, but he hadn't been there. They'd eaten cold food out of cans and pretty much lived at the jail or in their trucks for a few days. It hadn't been fun.

"Hunker down and wait it out."

"But don't you need to go home?" Vic asked, and then she flushed. "You have to look after me." She thought she was going to start crying. "Shouldn't we all just go to your ranch? I know you've got livestock to take care of."

Sue and Emma's phones both started ringing at the same time. Emma came back from looking for the cats, and said, "Wally said it's snowing like hell there, and we need to hunker down and stay put. Old man Saunders rolled his tractor over this morning trying to feed his stock, and they've been out all day trying to dig him out."

"Is he dead?" Vic asked, horrified.

"He jumped clear before he got pinned under it. Wally said the weather got so bad they just left the tractor and put some flags around it."

"The girls said all the horses and the milk cows and goats are in the barns. They've found all but one of the barn cats, and your dogs are in the cook shack." Sue reported to Emma. "Beth said there's six inches on the ground already, and she's worried about us."

"Wally said to tell you that he loved you." Emma said, and then she said, "Shit." For just a minute she looked like she was going to cry. Then she noticed the bewilderment on Vic's face, and smiled. "We'll have a slumber party. No sweat." She pasted a smile on her face.

"Did you find those damn C-A-T-S?" Sue asked.

Me –OW! Something said, and jumped into Vic's lap. Vic looked in absolute horror at the huge shredded _thing_ with one eye and missing half an ear, that she supposed was a C-A-T. It started purring and kneading her jeans, and in spite of herself, she stroked it.

"Well, there's Josh." Emma said.

"Where's Randall?" Sue asked the cat.

"Wait a minute." Vic said, trying to fight her way thru the fog in her head. "That's Steve McQueen's name in that show."

"There's been Steve, and Stevie, and a female called "Queen"." Emma said.

"And Joshie." Sue reminded her.

"He's so ugly you have to love him." Vic said, stroking the cat in spite of herself.

"And thank goodness whoever found him took him to the shelter instead of shooting him." Sue said. "He's a really good cat. We would have taken him if Mrs. A didn't."

"Sorry, Vic." Emma said, as she scooped the cat off her lap. "We've got to get a move on. You can love on him some more once we get settled at Cady's."

Vic supposed that Emma locked the cat up somewhere so she could find him later. Sue finished packing a 3rd milk crate of food, then she put a jar of cherries in her pocket, took Fluffy's leash, and they all headed back to Cady's with Emma helping Vic. It was snowing really hard now, and the footing was getting bad.

"Emma, maybe you should forget the food -" Vic started.

Mrs. Allred had the door open before they got there, and Sue thrust the jar of cherries in her hand, and turned Fluffy loose. Emma sat Vic down in a chair.

"Cady, why don't you show Vic some horse pj's from the livestock catalog?" Emma said, as she and Sue hustled back out the door. Emma started her jeep and the two of them started frantically clearing the ice of it.

"This really sucks." Cady whispered to Vic when Mrs. Allred went into the kitchen with the cherries. Rose was still crying, but she wasn't beating on the cabinet quite as hard. "I don't know how Dad can be such an ass and not even think anything about it." She swiped at her eyes, closed the file she was working on, and pulled something up on the internet.

"I was just curious." Vic said, "You didn't have to stop what you were doing."

"That's ok, I needed a break anyway." Cady pointed at the horse clothing as the pictures came up, explaining the difference between sheets, blankets, and turn out rugs, and Vic was intrigued in spite of herself. "Here's Smokey in his new rug." Cady said, showing her another picture.

"Wow, he's really pretty." Vic said.

Cady opened another folder. "This is the year we won the barrel racing championship." She said.

Vic looked at the picture of a younger Cady astride her horse, and the tall beautiful woman standing next to her holding a silver tray and a handful of cash. Both of them were grinning from ear to ear. Vic had never seen a photo of Martha before. "No wonder Walt never even looks at me." She thought. Cady's mom had been a very attractive lady, and she _fit_ here. Vic knew that she never would.

Cady sniffed and swiped at her eyes, and Vic knew that she was missing her Mom.

"Were Emma and Walt really going to fight?" she asked, trying to keep Cady from bursting into tears. She was pretty sure that if Cady started crying, that she would too.

Cady grinned. "I think Emma is the _only_ person who ever slugged my Dad and got away with it." At the look of horror on Vic's face, "Matty got hung up on a bull. The bull fighters couldn't get him loose. Rose and Emma tried to go over the fence to help him, they thought he was going to be killed. Mom tackled Rose, but she couldn't hold her _and_ Emma. When Dad grabbed Emma, she hauled off and punched him. It's not a good idea to mess with Emma when she's upset, she'll hurt you. I'd already left with one of my girl friends, we were going to hit another rodeo that weekend. If Mom hadn't been there, Dad would probably have hit Emma back."

"I don't know what "hung up" means."

"It's easier to show you." Cady went to you tube, and pulled up a video.

"My God." Vic said, as she watched the bull rider come off the bull and get caught in his rigging and flapped around like a rag doll before the clowns got him loose.

"Lane was really lucky there." Cady said. "he just got a wrenched shoulder."

"Lane rides bulls?" Vic couldn't decide if she amazed or horrified.

"He's retired. He promised Jeanne that he'd only do two years on the circuit and he'd quit if he got hurt. They did really well, if he'd kept at it, he'd probably have made it to the finals."

"Or gotten killed." Vic said, shuddering.

"He never got worse than a wrenched shoulder, but he's a phenomenal athlete. He used to run six miles a day and lift weights, and he doesn't even drink beer."

"What about Rose and Omar?" Vic whispered. "Does Mathias object?" She knew what an asshole he could be when he chose to.

Cady scooted closer and whispered back. "Matty would love it if Rose got married again. She and Emma about drive him nuts the things the two of them get into."

"Omar doesn't love Rose?"

"Poor Omar is crazy about Rose, but he got jilted at the altar. You can excuse him for being a little gun shy. His fiancé ran off with another man and took everything he had. So he quit his job and moved out here."

"What did he do before?"

"He was an investment banker in New York."

Vic nearly fell out of her chair. "What?"

"Yeah." Cady said. "He said he would probably have had a heart attack before he was forty if he'd stayed there, so maybe she did him a favor."

"If they love each other - " Vic started, then flushed, confused. She couldn't manage her own love life. She couldn't imagine life without Walt, but life _just working_ with him had gotten to be too much.

"Everybody knows they're in love with each other except the two of them. And Mathias is clueless."

The outside door opened and when they heard a man's voice, Rose stuck her head out of the kitchen. Fluffy was wagging his tail though so no one appeared overly worried.

"I hate to leave you ladies, but the weather is just getting too bad." One of Nighthorse's men said. "We'll help Emma unload the groceries and then you should just stay inside." He carried in a cat crate containing an angry hissing feline, and put it in the laundry room.

Another cat crate came in, dog food, cat food, cat litter, all the food that Vic and Sue had packed from the kitchen, an absolute ton of bedding, a snow blower, some shovels, bags of salt, some kind of portable heater, a can of what Vic thought was kerosene, and she lost track of everything else. She had no idea how they had crammed all that in Emma's Cherokee. Vic saw another man stacking wood on the porch the entire time everyone else was unloading Emma's jeep. They appeared to be preparing for Armageddon.

"Geez." Emma said, sitting down next to Vic once they'd finally put everything away. "I hope we brought enough."

Omar's voice came thru on the radio. "Mark, I need you and Eammon to get out to the Blessing's house. Arlette called and said her grandmother fell in the driveway and she can't get up. There's a tractor trailer overturned on the highway and both our ambulances are tied up there."

"I don't - Eammon started, and then Mark broke in and told him how to find the place.

"Thanks guys." Omar said. As soon as he signed off the radio, he pulled the trash can over and threw up. His head hurt so badly there was no way in hell he could have given Eammon directions. He didn't think he'd ever been so sick in his life, and he was afraid that he might lose his eye. And Rose was damn furious at him. It had been awhile since he'd seen her so angry. He thought he could probably survive losing his eye, but he couldn't live without her in his life. Even though he couldn't get up the nerve to ask her out, they'd been good friends for years, and he'd made himself be content with that. At first because she worked for him, and he didn't want to make her uncomfortable when he knew she needed her job, and then because he was just so damn scared. He was still throwing up when Ferg walked in the office.

"Damn, Omar! You want me to take you back to the hospital?" Ferg asked, after he handed him a cup of water from the cooler.

Walt stepped out of his office and shook his head at Ferg.

"I'm ok." Omar managed. It took him three tries to get out of his chair and he picked up the trash can and headed for the restroom.

"Walt -" Ferg started.

"You wrecked the Charger." Walt said. "I saw you pull up in your Dad's truck."

"God, no!" Ferg looked horrified. "I buried it in the snow. I had to get Mr. Skinner to pull me out with the tractor, and he towed me over to Dad's. I locked it in the garage. It just won't _go_ at all, and I knew you needed me, so I took Dad's old truck. It may look like shit but it'll climb thru anything."

"Good man." Walt said tiredly, and Ferg was still standing there with his mouth open when Omar staggered back into the room.

"Why did he send both of us?" Eammon asked Mark as they parked their vehicles at the top of the Blessings driveway. "And why didn't he give me directions?"

"Mrs. Blessing is a very _large_ lady, and Omar's sick as hell." Mark looked worried.

As they trotted down the driveway, they could hear a child crying and an older lady talking. "Now Arlette, I told you not to bother anybody." The older lady said when she saw them. "Mark, I'm so sorry. I'm just clumsy."

"Mrs. Blessing, it's freezing out here and you're wet." Mark said.

"Had to get my dogs up." She gestured to the chained dogs huddled in their dog houses.

"We'll get them after we get you inside." Eammon said, hoping the dogs were friendly and he wouldn't get his leg ripped off. It did take he and Mark both to get Mrs. Blessing up and inside the house. She insisted that she wasn't hurt, and went to change her clothes, after instructing Arlette to help the deputies get the dogs inside the garage.

Arlette led the biggest dog and Mark and Eammon made two trips apiece carrying the smaller ones inside.

"You need to call Mrs. Skinner and have her make sure that your Grandma is ok." Mark told the girl. "And don't you come back outside. It's going to get really nasty."

"Mr. Skinner's out on the tractor moving hay." Arlette pointed across the field, but they couldn't see anything thru the blowing snow. "He'll probably try and make us go home with him."

"It might not be a bad idea." Eammon said.

Mathias's voice came thru the radio. "I've got some drunk idiots in a gray Suburban doing almost ninety. I'm not gonna catch 'em before they cross the Rez line at Highway 17, and they're gonna kill somebody if we don't get'em stopped."

"This is Trooper Williams." Another voice said. "Absaroka County, can you try and divert traffic?"

"Ten four." Mark said. "Eammon, follow me, I'll get us there faster than your GPS will."

Mathias had dropped back from the speeders, even though he was still running his siren. It was getting harder and harder to hold the car in the road. He should have taken the SUV from Inez, who was running communications in the office. He already had an entire jail full awaiting transport to county, and he'd deputized Inez's husband Bill, and one of their ranch hands to guard them.

Eammon and Mark had tried to block the road off with their vehicles, and Mathias watched in horror as the Suburban struck Eammon's patrol car, spun it around, glanced off the side of Mark's truck, and hit an oncoming Toyota sedan, knocking it down the embankment, before overturning.

"Eammon!" Mark was yelling and beating on the bent door that he couldn't get open. "Eammon!" he ran around to the passenger side, and Eammon looked at him groggily.

"Go help those people in the car!" he managed, rubbing his head. "I'm ok."

Mark gave the passenger door another frustrated yank before he headed down the embankment after Mathias. He ignored the four drunk cowboys who were crawling out of the Suburban, still holding their beers in their hands.

"Nancy!" Mathias beat on the window. "Unlock your door!"

She looked at him dazedly, blood dripping down her face.

"Nancy, honey, unlock your door, so we can help you." Mark tried to smile at her. "It's ok." He poked Mathias in the side, hard, and Mathias instantly stopped banging on the glass, feeling like an idiot. He had been so sure she was dead, and he was scaring her worse.

"Sorry. We just want to help you." Mathias made himself smile at her too. It took her three tries before she finally got the door unlocked. He grabbed it and held it open while Mark carefully unbuckled her seat belt.

"Where are you hurt besides your head?" Mark asked her.

"Arm's broken." She said thru clenched teeth. "Oh, shit. I got to get home to help Grandma."

"Your Grandma and Arlette are fine. I saw Skinner feeding the stock and I think they're going home with him." Mark said. "I'm sorry, honey, it's going to be a bitch getting back up that hill. We've got to get you inside before this storm gets any worse. You think you can stay on my back?"

"Yeah." She said, tears squeezing out, as she hooked her good arm around his neck. Mark more or less crawled back up the embankment with her on his back, with Mathias steadying Nancy and helping him as much as he could

"Mark, how in the hell did you do that?" Mathias asked, after they'd buckled Nancy into the passenger seat of his car.

"Piece of cake. Nobody was shooting at me." Mark flashed him a grin, then sobered. "Can you get her to the hospital ok?"

"It won't be fast, but I'll get her there." Mathias assured him." _Even if I have to carry her."_ He said to himself.

Trooper Williams had cuffed the four drunks and locked them in the back of his patrol car while Mark and Mathias were helping Nancy. He was giving somebody major grief over the radio.

"Eammon, you ok?" Mark asked again, looking thru the door worriedly.

Eammon nodded." Don't worry about me." He said. "I guess they'll have to cut the door off when they get here." He tried to grin, but didn't quite succeed, and Mark turned back to Trooper Williams so that Eammon couldn't see how concerned he was.

"Violet's on her way." Trooper Williams said to Mark. "Get in the car and let's try and keep you warm until she gets here. There's nothing we can do for your buddy until she gets here."

Vic saw the flashing lights outside the window, and looked at Cady worriedly. "Is that the wrecker?" she asked.

Emma, Rose, and Sue all had guns in their hands headed to the door, when Mrs. Allred said, "It's Violet. Look at Fluffy."

Fluffy was wagging his entire mid section, not just his tail, and seemed to be smiling. Vic remembered the way he had snarled at Boulin.

"Hey girls, can an old lady come in and get warm?" A voice called out as the woman knocked on the door.

"Violet!" Emma opened the door, and they all looked at the crumpled police cruiser hooked to her wrecker in dismay. "Come in! You can tell us what happened while you get warm."

Violet sat down on the hearth after she'd ruffled Fluffy's ears, and slid her boots off. She accepted the coffee that Rose gave her gratefully. "Thanks. It's bad out there. Bunch of drunk cowboys caused a four car accident. They hit Eammon's cruiser and Mark's truck. Then they hit poor Kathy Blessing and knocked her car down an embankment, it may be springtime before I can fish it out. Mathias took her to the hospital, she's got a broken arm and some cuts and bruises. I dropped Eammon and Mark off at the hospital after we got Eammon out of the car. Eammon's just banged up and sore, and Mark got wet getting Kathy out of her car."

"Do you know if Omar's ok?" Rose asked worriedly.

"Sorry, honey, I didn't go back to the station. I just needed a few minutes to get warm and I knew you'd have some good coffee." Violet said. "Just call him."

They all gave Rose exasperated looks when she shook her head.

"Had a little excitement over at the Pony while all that was going on too." Violet said, taking a sip of her coffee. "Tall Grass came in, falling on his ass drunk, and when Jess refused to serve him, he knocked her down. Darius threw him through that pretty front window of Henry's -" she stopped. "Well, I reckon it belongs to Malachi, now, so who gives a shit. Tall Grass ain't so tough with somebody that can fight back."

A silent look passed between the four women that Vic didn't understand, and she realized that Violet had just told them something.

"Is Jess hurt?" Cady asked.

"Shaken up. Darius carried her out to his truck and took her to the hospital, and Malachi pitched a damn fit. A couple of the guys said they were surprised that Darius didn't just shoot him right there."

Rose went back in the kitchen and filled Violet's thermos with hot coffee and made her a sack of sandwiches.

After fifteen minutes, Violet reluctantly pulled her boots back on. "You need to stay put." She told Emma. "It's _really_ bad out there, and it's gonna get worse. Y'all stay warm and dry."

"Be careful, Vi." Emma said, and then she hugged her hard, and so did Emma and Rose.

"What did she tell them?" Vic whispered to Cady.

"I think maybe we don't want to know. Then we won't have to lie to Dad about it." Cady whispered back.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Malachi had been on a tear all morning. He'd argued loudly with Darius, banged his fists on the bar, then turned his bad mood on Henry. Henry was too generous with his serving sizes. He didn't need to put garnish on the plates and make them attractive. He'd cooked the food too long, it burned up propane. He spent too much time in the kitchen, he needed to be out tending bar. Henry just gritted his teeth.

There were some raised voices out in the bar, and Malachi headed in that direction.

The crash had Henry running out into the bar as well. Darius had just flung _someone_ thru his big, pretty front window. Henry looked in shock at Jess on the floor, and started to head in her direction, but Darius scooped her up in his arms and headed out the door to his truck. Malachi was cussing and ranting at Darius, who gave him a look that made Henry back up. He had no intention of getting in the way if the two of them decided to go at it. Jess was crying, and he hoped she wasn't hurt badly.

"What the hell happened here?" Malachi roared. "Hank, get that window boarded up right now!"

"Damn crazy Injun come in here whooping and hollering and then he knocked that little waitress down. And then he whoops some more and just jumps thru that window." Cecil, a cowboy who worked for Bill Rogers said, and looked around the bar.

There were a few local women there who came in several times a week for pie and coffee, two tables that Henry assumed were casino overflow, and the cowboys, who had come in saying that they were starving, another cook had quit.

"I'm calling the sheriff." One of the ladies said. "And if Jess won't press charges, I will. That jackass has been smacking women around for too long."

 _Everybody in the bar was going to go along with what Cecil said. Henry figured that the non locals were too terrified to object, and the women were all ranch wives who didn't take any shit. They probably would have kept right on drinking their coffee if Darius had murdered the man who hit Jess right in the middle of the floor._

Henry looked at his shattered window. All Cheyenne knew life went in cycles. He'd just hung on to this one for too long. Making up his mind, he stopped at the table where the ranch hands were devouring their food. "I'm sorry to bother you while you're eating." He said to Cecil, "But could I get Bill's phone number from you?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Henry." The youngest cowboy at the table said. "Please don't throw us out. I'll apologize to the lady again -" Somebody must have kicked him under the table, because he gulped and shut up. Henry had _no_ idea what that was about, but figured that poor Jess must have had a very rough day.

"Children should be seen and not heard." Pat, the oldest man at the table said, picking up his coffee and giving the younger one a look that plainly said he was fixing to get his ass kicked.

"Yes sir." The kid said, and Henry noticed that his hands were shaking as he went back to shoveling food in his mouth.

Cecil had his mouth full, but he held up his index finger to Henry, wiped his hands off on his napkin, pulled out his phone, scrolled thru the contacts, and pointed out the one that said "BOSS", but had no number listed. "Just take my phone, Henry." he said.

"Thank you, Cecil." Henry said, heading back into the kitchen.

He swiped at his eyes as he had the phone dial the number. "Mr. Rogers, this is Henry Standing Bear. I understand you're looking for a cook."

Bill let out an audible sigh of relief. It was Cecil's day off and he thought he'd managed to get himself locked up again. "Do you have someone in mind, Henry?" If it was an older widow from the Rez, he'd hire her in a heartbeat, but he had some rowdy ranch hands that he wouldn't trust around a young girl.

"Myself." Henry said, his voice bringing Bill back to the phone conversation. "I find that I need a job and a place to stay."

"Henry, I don't know if I can pay you what you're worth -" Bill started. Three of his hands had flat out quit over the lack of food. With George still in the hospital from the hog attack, he was down four men. He couldn't afford to lose anymore, especially with bad weather coming.

"If I don't get out of here right now -" Henry stopped. If Bill wouldn't hire him, he'd go to Cady's until the approaching storm was over. He could look after the girls and Mrs. Allred, and then he'd find himself someplace to go. It wasn't Bill's fault that he'd gotten himself into this mess.

" I'd love to have you, but the weather has turned to shit." Bill said. "I don't want you stranded outside."

"Cecil is here with some of your ranch hands and I believe he has a plow on his truck." Henry said. "I'll follow them out to the ranch."

"Thank you Henry. And you have no idea how much I mean that." Bill said as he hung up.

Inez gave him a quizzical look from her desk. "Did I just hear what I thought I did?"

"Henry Standing Bear is our new cook." Bill said, scratching his head. "I guess he finally had enough of Malachi's shit."

"Hank, did you find some plywood?" Malachi yelled. "It's blowing snow in the bar."

Henry tossed his expensive knives and his apron, and a couple of his favorite pots in an empty box, and headed back to Cecil's table. "Thank you." He said, sitting the phone down. "I would appreciate it if you would let me follow you back out to the ranch. My truck is not four wheel drive."

"You comin' with -" Randy slammed his mouth shut, and shot a horrified, apologetic look at Pat.

"I believe I am your new cook." Henry said. With the snow starting to blow thru the broken window, the temperature was falling fast.

"Hank, there's snow blowin' in the bar!" Malachi yelled again.

"I find that I just do not give a shit, Malachi. I quit." Henry sat his box down on the floor next to Cecil, and started to head upstairs to grab his clothes.

"You can't quit, Hank! And you're not takin' my stuff!" Malachi yelled, looking at the box.

Cecil took his foot and pushed it under the table and gave Malachi a "bring it on" look. Even Malachi wasn't fool enough to mess with him. The non locals were throwing money on their tables and leaving.

"Henry, dear, do you need me to help you pack?" One of the white haired ladies asked, standing up. "You're welcome to come home with me if you need a place to stay."

"Thank you, Kel." Henry said, touched beyond words. "But the weather is getting really bad and I would appreciate it if you would start home."

"Kel, just wait, and follow us. We'll plow you a path." Pat said. "We'll get all you ladies home."

"I'll be glad to help you too, Henry." Another of the ladies said. "Or we could just all shoot Malachi?"

Malachi looked at her in shock, knew that she _was not_ kidding, and picked up his phone and went outside.

Henry didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he ran up the stairs. He opened his safe and took out his cowboy and Indian figures, started to shove them in his pocket, and then carefully put the Indian in his right pocket and the cowboy in his left. He had enough trouble without the two of them fighting. His clothes filled one box, the few things he'd taken out of the safe were in another box, with the blanket off his bed covering them. And that was all he had, for all the years he'd put into the Pony. His entire life had been a waste.

It snowed, and snowed, and snowed. Emma and Sue took turns going out with the snowblower and clearing the sidewalks, and bringing in more firewood. Rose was evidently still angry. After Violet had left, she'd gone back in the kitchen and banged on something else for awhile. The smells that emitted were heavenly. Vic noticed Fluffy sniffing appreciatively, and realized that she was doing the same thing.

Rose yelled that dinner was ready, and Sue went into the kitchen to assist her, and came right back out and shot Emma a look that plainly said, "WATCH IT!" Rose came out balancing three plates, which she gave to Mrs. Allred, Cady, and Vic, then she served Emma and Sue and herself. She went back into the kitchen and came back with a pitcher of iced tea and glasses, and when she saw that no one had touched their food, she bellowed, "EAT!"

"Now Rose, you can't be yelling at the children." Mrs. Allred said. "They're both hurt and they don't understand what's going on."

It took Vic a minute to process that she and Cady were _the children._ She shot Cady a frantic look and Cady burst out laughing.

"Rose, I'm sorry." She finally managed to get out. "I'm sorry. It's not funny." She looked at Vic, and said, "We're not babies."

That struck Vic as funny and she started laughing too.

"You're both babies and you don't even know it." Emma said, and for a minute she looked so sad and unhappy that Vic thought she should get up and hug her. She really didn't understand half of what was going on, but she didn't think Cady did either.

"Emma, there's nothing we could do at the ranch that isn't already being done." Sue said. "And Henry can look after himself."

Emma turned red. "No, actually he can't." she said.

"Eat your damn dinner!" Rose shook her finger at Emma. "And don't you dare start crying, any of you!"

"We should have wrestled Omar back here where you could look after him, Rose." Emma said. "I could have monitored Walt's radio. I've done it for Matty before."

The older women sent a few concerned looks at Rose, and nobody talked. They had mashed potatoes, corn, and more homemade bread, with what Vic thought was canned elk. The meat was really good, and she wasn't about to ask what it was, and set Rose off again. When everyone had finished, Rose went back to the kitchen and brought Cady, Vic, and Mrs. A what looked like some kind of tart with a scoop of ice cream on it. Emma got up and carried some dirty plates in the kitchen, and that must have made Rose mad again, because when she came back out with cherry pie for everybody else, she didn't give Emma any ice cream. When Rose turned her back again, Emma stuck her tongue out at her. Cady was laughing silently, and Vic put her hand over her mouth.

Vic inhaled her tart and ice cream and wondered if Rose would smack her if she picked up the plate and licked it. She wanted another half dozen of the things, and she was sure if she had the option, she could eat them. Cady gave up trying to get the last of the cherry pie filling off her plate with her fork, and scraped it off with her index finger and ate it. Vic looked to see if Rose would object, and when she didn't, she did the same thing.

Emma and Sue cleared the table, and Rose brought Mrs. A some coffee, and hot chocolate for Cady and Vic. Vic really wanted some coffee, but she was afraid to ask for it, and it would have been rude. Mrs. A whispered, "I don't think you're supposed to have any." Pointing at her cup.

"Oh." Vic said, confused and embarrassed. "I'm sorry I'm so much trouble." She said to Rose.

"I'm sorry I'm in such a bad mood." Rose said, and gently touched her hair as she went back in the kitchen.

"Poker or monopoly?" Mrs. A asked Cady with a grin.

"You know I'm not playing poker with you card sharks." Cady said, "But Vic and I would love to watch." She bumped Vic under the table with her good foot. Vic had absolutely no idea what she meant, but assumed she wouldn't be playing.

It took Vic a few minutes to catch on that everyone except Mrs. Allred was cheating. She saw Emma slide a card up her sleeve, a few seconds later Sue did the same thing. Rose pushed a card under her placemat.

"How many cards are in a deck, Emma?" Mrs. A asked, grinning.

"In this one?" Emma shuffled the cards again. "Forty six."

"Forty five." Mrs. A said, sliding a card out of her own sleeve.

"Damn, how did I miss that?" Emma laughed, and shook a card out of each sleeve. Rose pulled two from under her placemat. Sue shook one out of her sleeve, then reached down and pulled another from her boot. Vic just watched them in astonishment. She had completely missed Sue dropping the card in her boot, and Mrs. A - She shook her head.

"About time we hit the casino again." Rose said.

"Not 'til you calm down." Emma said, "You'll get us all thrown out." When Rose glared at her, she said, "Just think, I could have married Omar and stayed in Billings, and you'd never have had to put up with me."

"Yeah." Sue said. "You old buckle bunny."

Emma grinned, and Mrs. A laughed out loud.

"Wait a minute -" Vic started, then looked at Rose apologetically. "Emma, you _dated_ Omar?"

"A couple life times ago." She shrugged. "Who do you think taught me how to count cards?"

"You count cards! But that's -" Vic stopped, before she put her foot in her mouth worse than she already had.

"We _all_ count cards, sweetie. This was just for fun. We're a little out of practice." Mrs. A said, laying her hand on Vic's. "We all fought against the casino with Martha. This is just some payback for Nighthorse. We never take him for that much money, and we're careful not to get caught."

"Kel got a little carried away last time." Sue said.

"That little old lady that eats pie at Henry's?" Vic asked.

"That little old lady taught math for thirty years. She's sharp as a tack." Cady said. "How much did you pay on Jess's baby's hospital bill?"

"Seventeen hundred thirty seven dollars." Rose said.

Vic looked at them in amazement. "So you go to the casino and cheat Nighthorse out of money, and then you give it away!"

"It's a shame you and Cady can't go with us." Sue said, grinning. "But you might lose your job, and Nighthorse would be a little ticked off at Cady."

"Never mind that poor Matty would have a stroke if he had to arrest us." Rose said.

Emma giggled, and Vic had a feeling that antagonizing Matty might be one of the main reasons _she_ was doing it. "We need to help Kenda next time. She's gonna lose that ranch, after four generations. Why do men do such stupid things?" When she saw the confusion on Vic's face, she continued, "Her husband didn't have any insurance. Kenda's already sold off all the cows, and she's going to have to sell the horses as well."

"She would have already had to sell _them_ if those fifty bales of hay hadn't magically appeared." Mrs. A said, shooting a look at Sue and Emma. "You bought her a little time at least."

"Well Lucian helped with that." Rose said. "He knows where all the skeletons in the county are buried. You know how cheap Skinner and Saunders can be, and they're both pretty well off."

"Skinner thought Lucian was hitting _him_ up for fifty bales, and he got pretty upset." Cady laughed. Seeing Vic's confusion. "That's _a lot_ of money. Like three thousand dollars."

"He sure didn't want to part with the fifteen that he _donated_ either." Sue said. "I do wonder what Lucian threatened Saunders with though?"

"That still he had some years back. The man made really good moonshine." Mrs. A said.

"Mrs. A!" Cady exclaimed, and they all laughed. Vic thought she'd learned more about the community in the past week than she had in the entire time she'd lived here before. She wondered if Lucian had _bent_ the law the entire time he'd been sheriff so that good could prevail. Now it seemed like the criminals got off scot free more often than not.

These women were nothing but extortionists. But they were brave and funny and she liked all of them. Mathias would wet his pants if he had a clue what they were doing at the casino, and Walt - She wondered if Walt already knew what was going on and just chose to overlook it.

"Now what about Emma being a buckle bunny?" Mrs. A asked Sue. "I don't know about that."

"Oh, Robert brought me home with him after I fell and busted my ass at a rodeo. And Sue was a little less than happy." Emma said.

"Honey, it was not your _ass_ that you busted." Sue laughed at her friend.

Seeing the confusion on everyone's face, Emma rolled up her sleeves, and let them all see the mottled scarring down her arms. At Vic's exclamation of horror, she shrugged. "It was a long time ago. And I'd never have met Robert if that hadn't happened."

Sue picked up the story. "Some drunk idiots spooked Emma's horse that was tied to the trailer and he broke loose and headed for the highway. Emma was running after him -"

"In brand new boots." Emma put in.

"And she fell and splattered herself on the pavement. Tommy caught the horse a few seconds later, and he and Robert thought Emma might have killed herself she fell so hard." Rose said.

"Robert said that he had never heard such things come out of a woman's mouth before." Sue said. "And that he decided right then and there he was going to marry her, because if she could cuss like that, she'd fit right in on the ranch. And he was afraid he was going to roll her over and she'd be ninety years old."

"And Tommy brings home an extra horse with a hurt leg and tells me we need to call the vet because it belongs to the woman who's going to be my sister in law." Rose added.

"And Sue thinks I'm a tramp that Robert picked up at the rodeo, and hates me before she even looks at me." Emma said.

"I didn't know that." Cady looked at Emma thoughtfully.

The lights blinked several times and then went out and Mrs. A reached and turned on the battery lantern that they'd sat in the middle of the table. "They stayed on longer than I thought they would." She said.

Vic was wondering how she could tactfully ask Cady if she could sleep with her, so that Mrs. Allred could have her bed. She knew Emma, Rose, and Sue well enough to know they'd be the ones sleeping on the couch and the floor.

"We might as well go to bed." Rose said thoughtfully. "That way we can all stay warm."

They spread all kinds of bedding out in the living room floor in front of the fireplace, and Mrs. A went and closed off the rest of the house. She sat the cat crates in the kitchen.

"Mrs. A, just let them out." Cady said instantly.

"They'll claw up Martha's pretty furniture." Mrs. A said, and shook her head

They put Cady on the outside so her foot wouldn't get bumped, and everybody else piled under the covers. Fluffy dived on top of Vic and made himself comfortable, and she didn't protest, because he was warm. Probably not as warm as Walt would have been, but she was never going to have the opportunity to find that out.

The storm lasted three days. The outside door kept freezing shut, and Emma, Rose, and Sue would pour kettles of hot water on it and mop until they got it thawed. Vic nearly gasped out loud when she saw how high the drifts were. The power finally came back on on the third day, but their phones were still out.

They heard a snowblower blasting away from outside, and Emma said, "It's Matty or Walt. Nobody else is stupid enough to be out in this." Which earned her dirty looks from Rose and Vic. She and Sue put on their coats and went to shovel on their end.

Emma and Sue pulled Mathias inside when their paths met in the middle. He looked like absolute hell. He had dark circles under his eyes, some black gunk on his face that looked like it might be grease, more of the stuff, and some mud, embedded in his hair. Cady didn't know whether to be appalled, or thrilled that he had chosen to come check on her instead of going to bed like he needed to. He didn't look like he'd had five minutes sleep since the storm started.

He sat down at the table with her and Rose, and picked up one of the sandwiches that Rose had started making the minute they heard him outside. His phone buzzed.

"Matty! You are not going anywhere until you have something to eat and get warm!" Rose burst out, and started crying.

" I'm glad they finally got the lines back up." Matty said, almost to himself. Then, "Ma! It's ok. It's not work." He looked at the text message and then he made a strangled noise that Vic thought was supposed to be a laugh, but he was so exhausted it came out more like a sob. "Lucian got married." He said, and handed his phone to Rose, who looked at it for a minute before passing it to Cady.

"Why did he say "Thanks, kid. Took your advice."?" Cady asked Matty.

"I told him to ask Lark to marry him again." Matty answered her before he took a bite of his sandwich.

Cady handed the phone off to Sue and Emma who both looked at it and grinned, before Emma brought the phone over to Vic and Mrs. Allred on the couch.

"It's about time." Mrs. Allred said.

Vic looked at the picture of Lucian and his radiant bride, who was a good deal younger than he was. Lucian had on a straw hat and a Hawaiian print shirt, and he looked ridiculous, and very, very happy. It was a wonderful picture. She was glad for him.

Matty sat his sandwich down and took a long swallow of coffee, then propped his head on his hand. It was only a few seconds before he nodded off to sleep. Cady rescued his coffee, and Rose removed his sandwich, before he just slid down with his head on the table. Cady reached very carefully to stroke his hair, realized that Rose was doing the same thing, and started to jerk her hand back, but Rose reached over and caught her hand and squeezed it. "I am going to love having you for a daughter in law." She whispered, and Cady started crying silently.

"If we wake him up to put him on the couch, he'll get up and go back to work." Emma said quietly. She reached and took his phone from Vic's hand. "I'll go call Inez." She tiptoed into the bathroom.

Several minutes later she came back, and it was easy to see that she was upset.

"SHIT!" Rose mouthed. "I'll wake him up."

Emma shook her head frantically and gestured to the kitchen. When she saw the concern on Cady and Vic's faces, she whispered, "It's ok. Let him sleep. Inez said that everybody else had been grabbing naps when they could, but he wouldn't stop. Nothing's wrong, really." And then her eyes filled with tears, and she covered up her mouth and almost ran into the kitchen.

Sue was right behind her, and Rose only a few steps back, she'd gotten up quietly so she wouldn't wake up Matty. Fluffy sat down on Emma's feet, he knew she was upset.

"Henry gave up the Pony." Emma said, and Sue just grabbed her and hugged her. Even though the bar might have _legally_ been Malachi's, everyone knew that it was still _Henry's_ bar. Henry must have finally had enough and thrown in the towel. "He's Bill and Inez's new cook."

"Well Malachi won't last two days without Henry." Rose said firmly, and clenched her fists.

"Oh, great." Sue thought, "Now she's going to go beat on something else." It was a real shame that they couldn't round up Violet and the four of them go and beat the absolute hell out of Malachi. Though the way Emma was shaking, she was more apt to just haul off and shoot him.

It had been two weeks since the blizzard. Omar had been to the eye specialist in Denver twice, and he still wouldn't let Omar go back to work. Rose was staying with Omar and pretty much sitting on him to make him follow the Doctor's instructions. Matty wasn't quite sure how he felt about the two of them shacking up, but Emma had told him in no uncertain terms to stay out of it, so he had.

He'd finally had the time to look at the file on Laughing Bird, as he'd promised Ferg. He looked at the measly page and a half report. When Inez and Vic had worked together on what they had thought was a child abduction, Inez's report had been eight pages long, and the kid had been found in less than eight hours. He never had to worry about any of Inez's reports being incomplete, the woman documented _everything._ This case hadn't even been investigated. He looked at the last sentence, "Mrs. Ferguson and her kid came in again. And that bitch Emma." _That was it?_ If one of his deputies had _ever_ written anything like that -

He walked into the front office. "Inez, are we out of ink again, or are you trying to save my blood pressure?" They _always_ ran out of office supplies before they ran out of month, the budget was so small, Mathias sometimes wondered how the tribal council expected them to function at all.

"That's all there is, Matty." Inez looked as if she was going to start crying. "They didn't even look for that poor girl. And I think Ferg's right, if Boulin didn't kill her, somebody else did. She never got any justice at all."

"Where can I find Alan Bull?" Mathias asked, looking at his other two deputies. He'd damn well go talk to the former lawman who'd mishandled the case and rattle his cage a little.

"He's dead." Harve said. "His girlfriend's husband came home and caught them in bed. He jumped out the second story window and broke his neck."

Inez looked at him in horror. "How old was he?"

"Like sixty seven."

"How old was his girlfriend?" Rick asked, laughing.

"Thirty five."

Mathias just shook his head. "Laughing Bird's probably buried on the Rez somewhere and will never be found. If Dad had still been alive -" he stopped. His father probably wouldn't have had a job then anyway, because Malachi had taken over right after Tommy had died, and fired all the long time deputies and given their jobs to his cronies. "And now I'm going to wonder what happened to that damn dog for the rest of my life."

"Matty, Ferg took the dog." Inez said.

"What?" He hadn't realized that he'd said it out loud.

"Ferg took him. He said Laughing Bird's grandmother was going to shoot him because he ate so much."

"That woman was a bitch." Harve said.

"Evidently, Ferg's Mom was a force to be reckoned with in her younger days?" Inez asked the three men, puzzled. "Mrs. Bird had put all of Laughing Bird's things in the trash, and Ferg's Mom told her that they were taking them and the dog, whether she liked it or not. Ferg said he thought the two of them were actually going to have a fist fight, or Mrs. Bird was going to shoot his Mom. He said he'd never been so scared in his life."

"You think Ferg's still got her stuff?" Rick asked.

"Well his Mom never throws anything away." Inez picked up her phone and sent Ferg a text. Her phone beeped a few seconds later, and she looked at Mathias. "Do you want him to bring it in?"

"Yeah. When he's got time. I doubt there's anything in there that will help. And it's been so damn long -" Mathias shrugged, and they all saw the frustration in his face.

"So how's Cady's case coming?" Rick asked him, as they watched Inez send Ferg another text message.

"I'm takin' her out to talk to Charlie again today. She's got a trial date, but she doesn't know who she's up against yet." Mathias shrugged. "We worked so damn much overtime in that blizzard that we'll never see -"

"Matty, nobody resents you takin' some personal time." Harve said. " I don't know how in the hell you put up with the crap you do. And don't tell me somebody's got to do it."

Mathias saw Inez look uncomfortable, and asked, "What are we out of?"

"Toilet paper." Rick said. "We all brought some from home."

"What else?"

"Printer ink. And flexi-cuffs. County didn't return those hand cuffs they took the prisoners in, and real ones cost _a lot_ of money." Inez said.

"I'll take care of it." Matty said, and went in his office to call the jail.

Henry and Emma had spent a nice morning visiting with Mrs. Nez and Mrs. Arrow. Henry had decided that he deserved to spend one last happy day with Emma, before he broke it off. It was just his luck that Emma hadn't come back into his life before he'd completely screwed it up.

Mrs. Nez had been working on a blanket for Emma for quite some time, and when she presented it to Emma and cackled, Emma had turned a bright shade of red. She had made her a _wedding blanket._ Henry wished so badly that he could laugh at her embarrassment. There would never be a wedding for he and Emma. He was not going to be a kept man.

He had continued his conversation with Mrs. Arrow, and pretended not to notice Emma's discomfort, or the sharp looks that Mrs. Nez had sent his way. And now they were more than half way back to Emma's ranch, and he still hadn't told her that he couldn't see her anymore.

"Did I tell you that Lucian got married?" Emma asked suddenly.

Henry chuckled, and then he realized she wasn't kidding. "Lucian finally married Lark?"

"In Hawaii, no less. I think they'll be home in a couple days. Isn't it great?" She beamed at him, and Henry felt a knife twist in his heart. He _couldn't_ give her up. The thought of never seeing her smile at him like that again - he took a deep breath, and slowed down to turn into the gas station.

Darius was walking across the Dino Mart lot to his truck parked at the gas pumps.

"STOP." A voice in Henry's head said, and he didn't even question it before he hit the brakes. The last time that voice had spoken to him, it had saved him from getting snakebit. He reached to shove the truck in reverse.

"Henry?" Emma looked at him quizzically.

A half a second later, Malachi stepped out from behind the building and shot Darius. Henry tried to push Emma down in the seat, and shove the truck in reverse at the same time. Emma had pulled her gun and was trying to get the door open. Henry knew if he let her get out of the truck she would kill Malachi. He was not letting her put herself in danger. He grabbed a handful of Emma that he knew was going to leave a nasty bruise, and reached and shoved the truck in reverse with his left hand and floored it. Malachi was unconcernedly walking back to his truck, when Darius suddenly sat up, seemed to struggle for a second, and then he pulled a gun from his jacket and shot Malachi in the back. Emma was slapping Henry's hand ineffectively, he had no intention of letting her go even if she slugged him.

"Stop it, Emma." He scolded.

"Henry, there are children in that store!" The usual day clerks were two teenagers, who were kids to Emma.

"And if they stay inside, they should be fine." Henry snapped at her. He waited a few seconds more, as Darius collapsed back on the ground and Malachi didn't move at all.

"GET DOWN!" he ordered Emma, and she gave him a dirty look, but she crawled down in the floor and he drove back into the parking lot. "Stay!" he told her, as he got out to see if he could help Darius. Out of respect for Mrs. Nez, he told himself.

Emma was out of the truck the second he was, and she ran to Malachi, with her gun ready. She kicked his gun out of his hand, and then she kicked _him,_ HARD.

"Emma!" Henry protested, trying to hold pressure on Darius's wound with the towel he'd grabbed out of the truck.

"I'm making sure the son of a bitch is dead!" She yelled back at him. "He's not hurting anybody else!"

"Get me my gun." Darius said frantically to Henry. "If he's not, I'll finish him off. ME. I get to -"

"Darius! Be quiet. He's dead. You got him." Emma said, running across the parking lot toward them, even as she pulled her phone from her pocket with her left hand and started calling 911, Henry supposed.

"Active shooters at the Dino Mart." The radio sputtered. "Any units in vicinity please respond."

Mathias picked up the transmitter. "ETA ten minutes." He said, knowing Inez would recognize his voice. He flipped the siren on, glanced over at the panic on Cady's face. "I'm sorry." He said. "Hold on."

"I know." She said, as it seemed like the car came off the ground, they were accelerating so fast. Matty had instantly gone from _the man she loved_ to a hardcore cop. When had she realized that she loved him? She didn't know how to process that.

"Get my phone out of my pocket." He said. "You know how to scroll down thru the contacts?" Never taking his eyes off the road.

"Yeah." Cady said.

"Dial Skinner's, and hold the phone for me."

Cady did, and he said, "This is Mathias. I've got an active shooter situation and I I've got my girlfriend with me. I need you to get Cady out of the car and keep her safe while I handle it." He listened for a second, then said, "Four minutes." Nodded to Cady to end the call.

 _How in the hell had her Mom dealt with this? Somehow she had never realized that her Dad was in danger every day. Matty could be killed in the next few minutes. She didn't dare tell him that she loved him, it might be a distraction. She didn't dare do anything._ She watched the seconds tick off on his phone. They had had such a nice morning, talking to Charlie, and she'd even managed to walk to the barn on her crutches and feed Smokey some carrots.

Three and a half minutes later, Matty slid the patrol car sideways into Skinner's parking lot. Cady dropped his phone down in the console a half a second before Wally came flying out of the taxidermist's shop and grabbed her out of the car. There was no way in hell she could tell Matty that she wished he would leave her somewhere else. Most of the men who hung out at Skinner's were a rough crowd, too rough for her tastes, and she was actually a little afraid of Skinner. But she knew everyone in the place was armed, and if god forbid, Matty's shooter got away, he wouldn't be coming in the taxidermists shop.

Wally ran into the building with her, and it was only when Matty sped away that Cady realized she had no crutches, no purse, and no computer, all of them were in the back seat.

"I didn't bump your foot did I?" Wally asked her, and Cady realized she was crying.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Wally. I'm just worried." She made herself swipe her tears away and try and smile at him.

"Matt can look after himself." Wally said worriedly, and she knew he was concerned about _her_ and not Mathias.

Wally had carried her back into the shop, behind a concrete wall, and Cady carefully didn't look at all the animal parts that were in the process of being stuffed. She heard some of the other men moving something heavy and assumed they'd slid something against the glass front door. Skinner brought her a Coke, which she didn't want, but she thanked him anyway. Another of the older men offered her some aspirin, which she accepted gratefully.

"You're safe in here, Miss." He told her, and she managed to smile at him, though all she really wanted to do was start screaming.

"Shooters are contained. Two either dead or wounded. Ambulance enroute to the Dino Mart." Inez's voice came over the radio.

"NO! DAMMIT! NO!" Mathias said, as he saw Emma standing in the parking lot with her gun in her hand. _Who in the hell had she killed? And who was Henry trying to help?_

"Emma, drop your gun!" he ordered.

"Matty, what in the hell is wrong with you?" she ignored him and put her gun in her pocket.

"Oh, Jesus, Emma, you shot Malachi!" Mathias said, recognizing the body on the ground.

"I shot the son of a bitch!" Darius struggled to sit up, and Emma got down on her hands and knees to soothe him. Mathias saw her wince when she bent down.

"Nobody's trying to take the credit from you, Darius. Calm down." She said gently, shooting Matty a confused look.

Mathias took a deep breath. Evidently he had read the entire situation wrong. Darius had blood bubbling from his lips and he was hit bad.

"Hang on, Darius." He said, leaning down, "The ambulance is on its way." He saw Henry shake his head, and knew it was too late, there was nothing to be done. And great, now Emma was crying and rubbing Darius's shoulder. He wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled and tell her she could not keep doing things like this to him. He made himself walk over to Malachi's body so he wouldn't grab her and hug her and tell her that he loved her. He had thought he was going to have to arrest her for murder.

Darius was still hanging on when the ambulance got there, but Mathias didn't see how. Emma went to the hospital with him, and Henry started to head inside the store.

"Henry?" Mathias said.

"Am I under arrest?"

"I was going to ask you if you would go and get Mrs. Nez."

"Of course. I was just going to wash some of this blood off of me first."

"Did you and Emma see the whole thing?"

"Darius was walking thru the parking lot and Malachi just shot him. I thought he was dead."

"And Emma tried to get out of the truck to shoot Malachi and you wouldn't let her." Mathias said, knowing he was right, even though Henry just looked at him and didn't say anything.

"Darius suddenly just sat up and shot Malachi in the back. They installed a security camera here after the Boulin's shot up the place, so you don't have to take my word for it."

"I know that." Mathias said, following Henry inside the store.

"Walt, Mathias on line one." Ruby called into his office.

"What can I do for you, Mathias?" Walt asked as he picked up the phone.

"Malachi's dead."

"Hell, I didn't do it!" Walt roared.

There was a stunned silence, and then Mathias chuckled. "I should have known you'd say that."

"I'm sorry." Walt said, running his hand thru his hair. "Do you need some help?"

"No, but I do need you to go get Cady. I had to drop her off at Skinner's and she's not very happy with me right now."

"You did _what?"_ Walt didn't let himself raise his voice, but it was a struggle.

"I couldn't take her to an active shooter incident, Walt. Skinner's was on the way and it's the only bullet proof building in the damn county."

"Yeah." Walt let out his breath. "I know that. Thanks."

"You might want to stop by the Dino Mart first though. I had all her stuff in the back seat, and I know she needs her crutches."

"Ok, I'm on my way." Walt said.

Harve was in the parking lot taking photos when Walt got there. "Mathias is inside." He said. "He's a little shook up, so you might want to go easy." At Walt's questioningly look, "He thought Emma shot Malachi."

"Who did?"

"Darius."

"Is Emma hurt?"

Harve shook his head. "She went with Darius in the ambulance, I don't know how he's even alive. Henry went to get Mrs. Nez."

"Mathias, It's Walt!" Walt yelled as he opened the door. He didn't know how shook up the kid was, but he wasn't risking getting shot.

Mathias was talking to the two teen aged store clerks, both of whom had been crying. "He would have come in here and shot _us!"_ the girl wailed.

"Emma and Henry wouldn't have let him hurt us and you know it." The boy said. "You need to just shut up about it. "

"My car's unlocked, Walt." Mathias said.

"Ok. You need some help? Want me to take them home?" he gestured to the two kids.

"My Mom's coming." The boy said. "Mathias won't let me drive." He looked really pissed off about it too.

"Well, I don't think you need to drive either." Walt said, "And I know you're scared, but back off on her." Looking at the girl.

The boy looked shocked, but he shut his mouth, and Walt headed out to retrieve Cady's stuff.

"I can't do this, Dad!" Cady said, as they pulled into her driveway. "I love him, but I just can't do this! I don't know how Mama -" And then she burst into great, gulping sobs.

It was snowing again, and Walt picked her up to carry her into the house so she wouldn't fall. Vic yanked the door open before they got there, looking at Walt in shock.

"Did something happen to Mathias?" she whispered. Cady had her head buried in Walt's shoulder and she was sobbing her heart out.

Walt shook his head as he carefully deposited Cady on the couch. "I'll get her stuff out of the truck." He said, backing away. "I'm sorry, Punk, I don't know what to tell you."

"Cady?" Vic carefully put a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?" She was sobbing so violently that Vic feared she might actually crack some ribs.

"Walt!" Vic said as he came back in the door with all of Cady's things. "Don't you dare bail out on me! What happened?"

"I think she just realized that Mathias is a cop." Walt twisted his hat in his hands. "And she doesn't know how to handle it." He started backing out the door.

"Walt, so help me, if you run off, I'm going to hurt you!" Vic said, grabbing at his coat. She realized that he was going to leave, no matter what she did. She was clueless what to do. _Ruby was the closest thing Cady had to a Mother._ "Get Ruby! You get Ruby and bring her back here! I mean it, Walt!"

Walt looked at her, shocked, and then he turned and ran for his truck.

Vic realized that the two of them had crossed a line that there was no going back from. She was going to have to make that phone call to Philly that she'd been putting off for so long.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Vic patted Cady's shoulder as she sobbed. She was completely clueless what to do. When she heard a truck pull up in the driveway, she all but ran to the door. But it was _Ferg_ who was helping Ruby up the sidewalk. She noted that it was snowing like hell again. _She was going to murder Walt._

"Oh, dear." Ruby said, as Vic opened the door. She gave her a quick pat on the arm as she headed for Cady.

Ferg looked like he was going to start crying too. "I'll get the sidewalk cleared off for you, Vic." He said.

"Where in _the hell_ is Walt?" Vic demanded, as she stepped outside with him.

"Somebody shot one of Mrs. Blessing's cows." Ferg swallowed hard. "Now, I'm pretty sure Mrs. Blessing wouldn't shoot _me_ , but I don't think I could stop her from shooting anybody else. Ranger Parker called and asked for backup. I think she's going to kill him _and_ the guy who shot her cow. He's an idiot, and he's insisting it's an elk."

"The guy shot one of those Yak things?" Vic asked in horror. Maybe Walt wasn't just being a complete ass by not coming back himself. Mrs. Blessings herd of cattle were all pampered pets.

"They're highland cattle, Vic." Ferg said, as he scooped snow off the sidewalk. "You got some more salt to put down?"

"I don't -" Vic stopped. "I don't want to go inside to get it, Ferg. I can't -" She stopped again. " Do you need to go back to help Walt? " she looked at him for a second. " _I_ can go." And then she realized that she was being just as big a coward as Walt was, and swiped at her eyes angrily.

"Walt can probably calm Mrs. Blessing down better by himself." Ferg said, patted his radio. "He'll call if he needs us."

"Do you know what happened with Cady and Mathias?" Vic whispered, then wondered why she was trying to be so quiet.

"Mathias got an active shooter call and he had to drop Cady off at Skinner's and she got pretty upset."

Vic shuddered in spite of herself. "Well, I'd be upset too." She said. She'd gone into Skinner's a couple times with Walt looking for pawned, stolen guns, and the men who hung out there were just creepy. None of them had been disrespectful, but they'd just made her uncomfortable.

"Malachi and Darius shot it out at the Dino Mart. Malachi's dead, and Darius is barely hanging on. Henry almost drove right into the middle of it, and I think he and Emma had a fight because he wouldn't let her out of the truck."

"Shit!" Vic grabbed a shovel and helped Ferg clear off the sidewalk and the steps. The snow was wet and fluffy and falling fast. "Are you moving more of your stuff out to Emma's?" She asked, spying the boxes in the back of his truck.

"That's evidence!" Ferg said, dropping his shovel. "I'm working a cold case with Mathias."

"You can put it in my truck so it doesn't get wet." Vic said, reaching for her keys. "Why are you helping Mathias?"

"Actually, he's helping me." Ferg said, and looked troubled.

Vic helped him sit the boxes inside her truck. "Is Walt ok with this?"

"I'm doing it on my time. And I don't really think Walt would care - "

Ruby opened the door then. "You two come in and get warm." She said, in a tone that didn't leave any room for argument.

Ferg shot Vic a panicked look, but they followed Ruby inside.

Cady was still crying, but it wasn't the hysterics that had sent Vic into a panic. "I'm sorry." She said.

"Hey, it's ok." Vic said, knowing it wasn't, but what the hell was she _supposed_ to say. "I wouldn't like it if Walt dropped me off at Skinner's either."

Ruby sat two more cups of hot chocolate on the table and pointed at Vic and Ferg to sit down. "Cady,honey, I think this has more to do with the fact that you _couldn't_ help Mathias than anything."

" This damn cast!" Cady burst out. Then," I love him!" She said, and turned a furious red. "And it's so stupid. I just realized I love him and I was so scared that he was going to die before I got to tell him. And I just went a little nuts." She looked at Vic. "I was afraid to tell him to be careful. I was afraid to open my mouth. I thought anything I said might be a distraction. How do you handle that?"

Vic just froze with her mouth open, because she had no idea what to say.

"Is that why Lark wouldn't marry Lucian? Because she was scared?" Cady looked at Ruby.

"I don't think Lark's ever been afraid of anything." Ruby shrugged. "I think she wanted her career, and Lucian kept pushing her to marry him and have a baby before it was too late. And then he told her it was _him_ or her job, and he should have known better. They could have worked it out. He was just too damn stubborn and he wouldn't compromise at all."

Ferg looked uncomfortable, and then he asked Cady. "Are you going to break up with Mathias?"

"I wasn't even sure we were _dating."_ Cady said, and looked confused again. "But he told Skinner I was _his girlfriend_. And Rose seems to think the two of us are getting married? Matty just decides things, and that's the way they are -"

"He and Emma are just alike." Ruby said. "I really hope she doesn't break up with Henry because he tried to protect her."

"I hope so too." Cady said, and then she looked guiltily at all of them. "I'm sorry I got so upset."

Vic remembered those horrid awful moments when she thought Walt's body was in the bag that had been thrown down in the root cellar with she and Shaun, and shuddered in spite of herself. Even though she was a cop, she completely understood how Cady felt.

"If you're ok, Ferg and I probably need to go back to work." Ruby said, looking at Cady.

"I'm sorry." Cady said again. "I'm really sorry."

"You've always been there for me." Ferg said. "With Laughing Bird and my Mom." He swiped at the tears that were starting to roll down his face.

"Damn Boulin to hell anyway." Ruby said, and she grabbed Ferg and hugged him hard. "I'm so sorry, sweetie."

Vic locked the door behind them, and looked over at Cady. "Are you ok? Can I ask you something?"

"About Laughing Bird?" Cady guessed. When Vic nodded, "She was Ferg's first girl friend. She was a really sweet kid. He thinks," she sighed, looked like she was going to start crying again. "He thinks Boulin killed her, and now that Matty's re-opened the case, he thinks so too."

"Shit!" Vic looked at her. "Back when you were kids?"

"I guess she was fourteen when she disappeared. It was a little over a year after Matty's Dad got killed, I think. He and Ferg's lives both kind of went to shit at the same time."

Vic wanted to ask some more questions, but realized that she was upsetting Cady again, and decided she'd just pester Walt tomorrow - if she still had a job.

Walt looked at the two cows down in the pasture in the distance. Ferg had told him that _one_ cow had been shot. If the damn fool that Mrs. Blessing was holding at gunpoint had shot _another_ one in the meantime - how in the hell was he going to keep her from killing the man?

"Walt!" With the blowing snow, what he had _assumed_ to be a cow, turned out to be Kathy Blessing in brown Carhartt's, and she was trying to get his attention and hold the injured cow down with her broken arm. "Walt! I need some help! Doc Ramsey's coming!"

Well, the cow wasn't dead, yet. "Get your asses in there and help that woman!" Walt snapped at Ranger Parker and the idiot shooter. "Mrs. Blessing, let's help the cow, then I'll straighten all this out. _Don't shoot anybody!"_ he called over his shoulder as he followed the men thru the pasture gate.

"Kathy, you need to go back to the house." Walt said. "You don't have any business out in this cold. I'll help Doc Ramsey, and they will too." The look he shot Ranger Parker told him to keep his mouth shut. Then he saw the bucket and the scattered alfalfa cubes.

"Were you feeding the cows when he shot this one?" he demanded, thinking he'd just go ahead and break the man's jaw.

"Arlette was." Kathy swallowed hard. "I had a Doctor's appointment this morning, and I can't drive the truck, and Grandma can't get the big gate open by herself, so she stayed home."

Doc Ramsey stopped at the gate and picked up Mrs. Blessing and her shotgun. "Kathy, you need to go back to the house." She said. "I called Skinner's and some of the men are coming to help."

"I'm ok." Kathy said stubbornly. "You need me. She still wants to get up." Patting the cow's neck.

Doc Ramsey jabbed two syringes of what Walt assumed were pain meds in the cow, checked her breathing, listened to her heart, and went back to her truck. She spread a drape out on the ground, and Walt automatically put his knee on one end of it and Kathy the other, to keep it from blowing away. Doc Ramsey positioned everyone. Kathy would assist her with the surgery, with Walt laying on the cows neck to hold it down, and Parker and the idiot were holding the hind legs, where they were quite apt to get the shit kicked out of them. "You better not let this cow get up." She told Parker, and waved her scalpel for emphasis. Walt almost laughed.

When she cut into the cow, he thought the shooter was going to pass out at the spurt of blood that came out. She rooted around with the forceps, pulled the bullet out, and said to the shooter, "Hold your hand out."

"Shit." Walt thought to himself. "She's going to get him kicked on purpose."

The shooter stuck his hand out, and she dropped the bloody bullet in it. "You made a damn mess." She said. "And if you throw up on me, I'll carve you up like a Christmas turkey. How _in the hell_ did you think this was an _elk?"_ Then to Kathy, "Is she pregnant?"

"Five months." Kathy said.

"Thirty five hundred plus my bill." Doc Ramsey said to Walt. "Say an even five grand."

" _What?"_ the shooter stammered.

"What you're going to pay in damages." Walt said. He figured the cow _was_ worth that much money. Doc Ramsey would probably have charged Mrs. Blessing two hundred dollars if they'd found the cow down in the field, but if she had a city idiot to pay the bill, he didn't blame her one bit for jacking it up a little. He hoped nobody volunteered that the fool could have shot little Arlette before she put her surgical instruments away. She had threatened to castrate Vic's prisoners. She'd probably slit this guy's throat.

"But it's an _elk!"_

Doc Ramsey slapped him upside his head with her bloody hand. "Just shut up. You're too stupid to live."

"That woman hit me!" the man whined to Walt.

"I believe she told you to shut up." Walt said, trying not to laugh. He watched the vet tie off a blood vessel, look for bleeders, and then suture a drain plug in. He heard Skinner's big tractor coming before she finished, and hoped he'd brought some help with him. Mrs. Skinner was driving the tractor, and Skinner and two other men were sitting on the stone boat. Walt hoped Mrs. Skinner stayed in the cab, and that no one told her that the fool had almost shot little Arlette.

Kathy finally agreed to go to the house, her knees were soaked thru. Mrs. Blessing walked with her to make sure she didn't fall. It took all the men to heave the cow on the stone boat, with Doc Ramsey holding its head to make sure they didn't damage its neck. She positioned Parker and the idiot at the rear again, and sure enough, they both got full of cow shit. Doc Ramsey and Walt rode on the stone boat with the cow. Skinner drove the vet truck to the barn and the other men walked alongside to keep the cow from falling off.

Half an hour later, the cow was in the barn, hooked up to an IV. She looked like shit and Walt didn't think she was going to live. Doc Ramsey was still mad. The idiot had opened his mouth one time, and the look that Skinner had given him had made him turn green. Ranger Parker had tried to leave, and Skinner had told him that he couldn't go until Doc Ramsey said it was ok.

Walt had borrowed a cell phone to call Violet to come and pick up the shooter's truck that he was impounding. He really didn't want to cuff the guy and toss him in the back of the Bronco as covered in cow shit as he was but it looked like he wasn't going to have any choice.

 _There was something going on in his county that he had missed._ None of the men had left, and _all_ of them were watching Parker. They weren't trying to be inconspicuous about it either. And Parker was scared. Mrs. Skinner was assisting the vet. Doc Ramsey was a halfbreed Blackfoot, and tough as hell. She and Mrs. Skinner were a lot alike, they were always kind to animals and children, but they didn't have much patience with anybody else. They were more than capable of looking after themselves.

Walt knew that Parker was an ass when he was drunk, but something bad was going on here that he didn't know about. When he heard Violet pull up in the tow truck, he caught Skinner's eye and nodded to the idiot, and Skinner just casually reached in his pocket, and Walt knew he'd shoot the guy if he tried to run.

First Martha had gotten sick. Then she'd been killed. Then the whole sordid mess with Branch. And Vic, _always_ Vic. He needed to send Vic someplace far away where she would be safe. He should have made Ruby stay in Texas. He should have sent Cady to join her.

"Damn nice truck." Violet said, and ran a hand over the shiny new Silverado's fender.

"Tell me about Ranger Parker." Walt said. "I seem to have missed something."

"He's a pervert." Violet said. "A little too friendly with his hands. Mathias has had a couple complaints about him, but you know he can't do anything because he's a white man."

"Why didn't he tell me?" Walt demanded.

"Walt." Violet looked at him like he was an idiot. "If Mathias told you everything that goes on on the Rez, that you probably _do_ need to know about, it would take him an entire day. _Every week._ I try to filter out stuff and talk to both of you."

"Point taken." Walt said. "Parker actually _hurt_ anybody?"

"He hasn't raped anybody yet. Or I haven't heard about it, if that's what you're asking. Mathias did file a complaint with the feds, _and it wasn't me who told you."_

"Okay, thanks. Put the truck in the impound yard."

"Will do." Violet said cheerfully.

Vic hadn't heard a car pull up, and the knock on the door surprised her. She knew Nighthorse's men were still on guard though, so she tiptoed to the door, with her hand resting on her gun.

"It's Mathias." He said thru the door. "I don't know if I'm persona non grata, or if Cady will even talk to me -"

Cady jumped off the couch so fast she nearly fell, and Vic opened the door, and barely managed to get out of the way before Cady all but tackled Mathias. She hit him so hard he nearly fell over, and started kissing him. "I guess we're ok." Mathias said. The look of sheer bafflement on his face almost made Vic laugh, and she headed into her room and shut the door.

She heard the outside door open and close, and then Cady tapped on her room door. "Vic, I'm sorry, that was rude. Come out and have a beer with us." When Vic opened her door, "Well a non-alcoholic beer. Matty doesn't drink, because he's never really off duty."

Mathias came back in with a six pack of long necks and opened them and passed them around.

"Thanks." Vic said, wondering how she was going to manage to choke down something that she knew was going to taste like crap. She took a small swallow and was really surprised at how good it tasted.

"This has been one hell of a day." Mathias said, and Vic noted the sheer exhaustion in his face. He looked so bad she wanted to hug him, and she didn't even like him, for god's sake.

"Are you and Emma ok?" Cady asked him.

Mathias shrugged. "Emma and I are either annoyed with each other or not speaking at all, so it's nothing new."

 _He has no idea how much Emma loves him._ Vic thought. He's as dumb as Walt is in that respect.

"I owe Henry big time." Mathias said, and the look on his face said that he _really_ did not like that.

"I have never understood why the two of you don't get along." Cady said.

Mathias shrugged. He wasn't sure he could even put into words what he felt. Not in front of Vic anyway. _Maybe after he and Cady had been married for twenty years,_ he might find the nerve to try. He had thought he'd lost her today. He had thought he was going to have to arrest Emma. When he'd looked at the surveillance video, he'd realized that Henry had probably kept Emma from being shot. And though he and Emma fought like dogs and cats, the thought of anything happening to her was enough to terrify him. His phone rang, and he groaned out loud before he could stop himself. Cady reached and gently put her hand on his arm, and Vic dashed into the kitchen to make him a sandwich.

Mathias put his phone back in his pocket, and looked at Cady sadly. "Sorry, Red, I've got to go. Darius just died. We knew he wasn't going to make it, but - Emma's upset and needs a ride home. Henry left because he had to get up at 4 to start breakfast for the ranch hands."

"Mathias, I made you a sandwich." Vic said, thinking maybe she shouldn't have.

"You haven't had anything to eat since lunch, have you?" Cady asked, knowing she was right.

"Thanks, Vic." Mathias said, taking the sandwich from her hand. Then he looked at Cady, "You and I, we're _ok?"_ He was really worried, and trying to hide it.

"Go take care of Emma, Matty. You and I are fine." Cady said, smiling at him.

"Oh!" Vic said, "Ferg had some boxes of evidence for you. We put them in my truck so they wouldn't get wet. They can wait 'til later -"

"No, I'll take them." Matty said, knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep anyway.

Vic grabbed her coat and went outside with him. As she handed him the last box, a photograph fluttered out. She picked it up and looked at it in surprise. A young Ferg was sitting with a Native American girl, with a _huge_ dog who looked exactly like Fluffy between them. They both had an arm around the dog, and their fingers were just barely touching. It was really sweet. They were trying to look at the camera, and not each other.

"Can I keep this for awhile?" Vic asked. It was an old Polaroid, and badly faded, but maybe she could clean it up a little.

"Not if you're going to tease Ferg with it." Mathias snapped, and she looked at him in shock. "I'm sorry." He said. "He loved that little girl." He swallowed hard. "And I know it was a long time ago, but some things you just don't forget."

"First loves are special." Vic said, and she saw the way Mathias looked at Cady. " _He's always loved her."_ She thought. And just been too damn stubborn to do anything about it.

"Jesus, Red! Could you make anymore of a target of yourself? Turn the light off and get your ass out of that door!" Mathias yelled at Cady.

"Oh, shit." Vic thought. She knew he was upset. She knew he'd had a bad day, but Cady wasn't going to put up with that.

The light snapped off and she heard Cady move a little. "You bring _your ass_ back here before you leave!" She yelled at him.

Vic thought it was probably a good thing she was on crutches. Or not. She was liable to brain Mathias with one. He tossed the last box in the back of his car, gestured for Vic to keep the photo she had in her hand, and resolutely went back inside. Vic dimly saw Cady grab a handful of his coat, and from the way Mathias winced before he put on his inscrutable face, she thought she had gotten some skin as well.

"If you ever speak to me like that again, I'll knock you on your ass." Cady said, right in his face.

"Oh, shit." Vic thought and froze. Surely Mathias wouldn't hit Cady. If he did, and she tried to stop him, it would be a free for all brawl.

"As soon as that cast comes off, we'll just see who gets knocked on their ass." Mathias said, and he wasn't kidding.

"I'm looking forward to it." She remembered how she and Matty had wrestled when they were younger, and suddenly the image in her head was of them tangled up in an entirely different way. From the look on his face, he was thinking the same thing.

"I'm looking forward to _that_." He said, and he still wasn't smiling. He put his mouth against hers, but he didn't really kiss her. She wasn't sure if it was a challenge or a promise.

"Boulin doesn't usually shoot people, does he?" Vic asked, after Mathias had left and she and Cady had gone back inside.

"I think he probably killed his brother Arlen the night of the Dino Mart robbery."

"What?" Vic looked at her in shock.

" Arlen was a pretty decent kid. He just had the misfortune to be born in the wrong family. Maybe Arlo bullied him into trying to rob the store and he got cold feet. Or maybe Arlen knew that Arlo had killed Laughing Bird, I don't know."

"But how did Arlo get away with the robbery?"

"A lot of the people who were shooting probably weren't supposed to have guns in the first place. And they recovered part of the money." She shrugged. "They probably got _all_ of it back and Malachi helped himself to some of it. And Arlo had an alibi. He swore he was in bed with his girlfriend Marigold Hoskins. And his truck was at her house and the neighbors said that he hadn't left."

"Is she still alive?"

Cady looked at her in shock. "I don't know if anybody thought to look for her."

She whipped out her phone, and Vic thought she was calling Mathias, but then realized that it was Ferg she was talking to. "She's working up in Red Lodge, Mathias had already found her, but he hasn't had time to go and talk to her."

"I'm sorry to bother you, Matty." Emma said as she got in the car. "I talked to Sue earlier and Wally cut his hand pretty badly today, and I knew he wouldn't let her come without him."

"It's ok."

"Eat your dinner." Emma said, spying the wrapped sandwich sitting on the console. Then she noticed the boxes in the back. "Are you finally moving out of that awful apartment?"

"Evidence." Matty said, unwrapping the sandwich, and offering her a bite. He was surprised when she took it. He took a bite too, and chewed, and chewed, and chewed. Both of them looked at each other, and Emma hunted around in her purse until she found a napkin and spit hers out. " My God, _Vic_ must have cooked this! What did she do to it?" Then "Matty, spit it out! You're going to choke!"

Mathias shook his head stubbornly, but then gave up and took the napkin she gave him. She produced a bottle of water and handed it to him. "Damn." He said, and then he looked at Emma and they both laughed, and then Emma started crying.

"It's ok, Emma." He laid a hand on her arm. "I'm sorry I yelled at you, but you scared the shit out of me."

"I was going to kill him and Henry wouldn't let me." She said. "I would have. He wouldn't have left us and those children as witnesses -"

"Emma, it's ok." He squeezed her arm gently. "Talk to Lucian when he gets home."

"What?"

"Talk to Lucian. He's older and smarter than me and he'll know what to tell you to make it alright. It _is_ alright. It would have _been_ alright if you'd killed Malachi. I'm just glad you didn't have to." He sighed. "I'm really glad that Henry didn't let you get hurt. You didn't break up with him, did you?"

"He's really mad at me." Emma said. "But I'm mad at him too."

"I seem to recall you and Uncle Robert having a couple go rounds too."

"We did. But Robert and I loved each other. I'm just too damn old to start over." Emma swiped at her eyes and tried to smile at him.

"Hey, Walt." Vic said when she walked into the office the next day. It was mid-morning, and he hadn't been there earlier when she had to leave on a call. "Can I ask you about Laughing Bird?"

"Come in my office and close the door." He said, not getting up from his desk. "Sit." He pointed at the chair.

Vic sat. "Oh, shit." She thought. "He's going to fire me. I'm going to have to get a job flipping hamburgers."

"You need to leave." Walt said. "You're a good cop, but you just don't fit in here and you never will. I'll give you a good reference."

Vic looked at him in dismay, and then she said, "Walt, has it occurred to you that Cady can't manage by herself?" At the look of confusion on his face, "If I leave, you're going to have to hire a home health aide to help her. You have no idea how embarrassing it is to have to ask for help getting in bed, or taking a shower." She glared at him. "Surely you and I can be adult enough to work together until after Cady gets her cast off and starts her re-hab." _Dear God, she'd actually said that to him._ And he was furious.

" _Surely_ I can manage to act like an adult for another six weeks." He said, and for half a second as he got up, she thought he was going to hit her, or maybe something else? She had never seen a look like that on his face before. He picked up his coat and hat and she waited for the outside door to slam. But he closed it so quietly it didn't even click. And that's when she knew how mad he really was.

Walt clenched the steering wheel of the Bronco. _Why in the hell hadn't he just fired her?_ She would have been back in Philly before the end of the week. _Safe._ Out of Boulin's reach. It had nearly killed him when Martha died. If he had to bury Vic, it would finish him off. He had _almost_ yanked her out of that chair and kissed her. But he couldn't trust himself to put his hands on her. If he did, he knew he'd tell her that he loved her.

But little as she was, Vic would fight. If Boulin came after Cady with her there, she'd do her best to take him down. Maybe, just maybe, the two of them together could fight him off. If she left, and he hired a health care worker to help Cady, he'd just be putting a poor innocent woman in danger. There was no end to this mess. And now Lucian would be bringing Lark into it.

Vic laid her head down on Walt's desk and cried. She'd known she was going to have to leave. She had thought about it. Even imagined going in Walt's office, plopping herself down in his lap and kissing the hell out of him, before saying, "I QUIT!" Maybe she'd still do it, on her last day. He would strangle her. At least then she wouldn't be hurting like this.

She heard Ferg come in, and the phone rang, but she just couldn't make herself get up. She knew she looked like hell. She didn't want Ruby to see how she'd been crying, and she was afraid to use the outside door, for fear that Walt might still be out there. She didn't trust herself not to shoot him. He'd liked her once, he'd talked to her. They'd been really good friends. She had no clue what she had done to make him just completely shut her out.

"Walter?" Ruby tapped on the door and opened it. "Oh, Vic, honey." She said in dismay.

"It's ok, Ruby." Vic said tiredly. "We all knew it was coming." She tried to smile at her. "Just let me splash some water on my face."

"I'm sorry, Vic." Ruby said. "You and Ferg have to help Ranger Parker get a drunk out of a tree stand."

"Why in the hell can we just not let the guy fall?" Vic grumbled to Ferg as they went downstairs. It was snowing again, and she cussed under her breath and went and got in the passenger side of Ferg's truck before he could open his mouth. She _did not_ want to be stranded out in this weather. She didn't want to be anywhere in the vicinity of Ranger Parker.

"Vic!" Ferg said quietly, but he grabbed her arm as they started down the trail. "That guy's _drunk!_ We don't know how long he was hanging upside down before somebody called it in. He's got a _loaded_ _gun._ "

" _Shit!"_ Vic said, stopping so fast that Ferg bumped into her and nearly knocked both of them down.

" You're not thinking right." Ferg said, not letting go of her arm. " _I'm_ going to tell you what to do -" At the glare she gave him, "Have you ever _done_ this before?" When she shook her head, "Well, I _have._ And if you won't listen to me, _we're_ going right back to the truck and waiting on Walt." His hold on her arm tightened. " _I am not letting you get shot!"_

"Ok." Vic said, "Tell me what to do." She'd assumed that Ferg was going to take the lead and be the big strong man who disarmed the guy. She'd assumed wrong.

"You're going to have to get the guy's gun because you're the lightest." At the look she gave him, "Most tree stands are only designed to support two hundred and fifty pounds. _If they're put up properly._ I put a foot on that ladder, the whole thing's liable to come down."

"Ok." Vic said, understanding now.

"I'll shoot the guy if he makes a threatening move towards you." Ferg said. "If Parker won't back off and let us handle this, we go back to the truck. Understood?"

"We could just let Parker climb up and disarm the guy and watch the tree stand fall." Vic suggested.

"I wish." Ferg said.

"You took your time getting here." Ranger Parker said. Vic just ignored him and took a careful, closer look before heading for the ladder. She missed the leer that he gave her, but Ferg didn't.

"Sir?" Vic said politely as she started up the ladder. "I'm here to help you. It looks like you're having a really bad day. I need to take your gun so that we don't accidently shoot anybody -" she stopped. He wasn't breathing, and his face had turned purple.

"Take your time, Vic." Ferg said quietly, from underneath her.

"Ferg?" She didn't know why she suddenly thought she was going to be sick. She'd seen dead bodies before. "Ferg, he's dead." He'd already suffocated.

"Well, shit." Ranger Parker said. "Maybe if you'd gotten here sooner -"

"Just shut the hell up!" Ferg snapped, surprising everybody, apparently including himself. Then, "Vic, I'm sorry. We still need to get his rifle."

"It's caught in the safety harness." Vic said. She didn't see how she could get it loose without cutting it.

"Are you _sure_ he's dead?"

"Ferg!"

"I don't want him waking up and killing all of us!" Ferg yelled up at her. "I can't see him. _You can._ Check his pulse."

"Ok, calm down." Vic stretched as far as she could, caught the safety harness and wrestled the guy over. She inched her hold up the harness, and when the guy swung eye to eye with her, she knew she didn't need to check his pulse. He was gone. "He's dead, Ferg. I don't know how to get this rifle loose. Maybe you should move! He's got a death grip on the trigger." Which meant he'd been dead awhile.

"Can you push the safety on?" Ferg asked.

She heard Parker mutter something, and then a thump, and wondered if Ferg had hit him.

"Ok, Ferg. It's on. Now what?"

"Can you reach your knife to cut him loose?"

"We're just going to drop him?" Vic turned so she could look at Ferg.

"The son of a bitch is dead." Ranger Parker said. "It's not like he's going to feel it. It's cold as shit out here -" he suddenly shut up, and Vic wondered what Ferg had done.

It seemed to take forever, but Vic finally managed to saw thru the harness. She cringed in spite of herself when the body hit the ground. When she finally made it off the ladder, she bent over to catch her breath, panting, and that's when she felt Parker's hands on her. Everything went into a red haze, she was so angry.

"VIC! VIC!" Walt had hold of her, pulling her off him. "VIC! STOP IT!" He shook her gently, laid his big hand on her cheek. " _You in there?"_ It was almost teasing, almost a caress. He had one arm around her waist, holding her off the ground. And he was laughing his ass off. She had never seen Walt laugh like that. Her heart caught in her throat, and right then, she knew she loved him. She had fought against it for so long. She didn't love Shaun, but she hadn't wanted a divorce. Another failure.

It had been a day from absolute hell that had started with a 6am call from Walt, waking her up. It was midafternoon when Vic had finally thought she was going to get to drink a cup of coffee. Walt's _nasty_ _coffee_ from his thermos. If she didn't have some caffeine, she was going to fall out. She didn't know how Walt could go all day and not eat, the way he did.

"We'll stop and get some lunch before you murder somebody." Walt said, shooting a sideways glance at her. And then the radio crackled again, and Vic cussed.

This time, it was an altercation between a buffalo and a car. The poor elderly lady had stopped when she saw the bull in the road, and patiently waited. But he'd decided that he had the right of way and rammed her car. And kept ramming her car. Ruby was flooded with calls from panicked tourists. Unknown to her, when some of them couldn't get thru to the sheriff's department, they'd managed to call the tribal police. _Never mind where they were, a buffalo was trying to kill a woman._

"Shit." Vic said, when Walt stopped the Bronco. "Walt, what do we -"

The buffalo backed up, pawed the ground, and rammed the car again. The elderly lady inside flapped around like a rag doll, and more steam started pouring from the hood.

"Shit." Walt said, and grabbed his rifle as he climbed out. "Shit." He said again, as he braced the rifle across the truck hood. A horn suddenly started blaring, and Vic wondered which one of the stupid tourists it was, and a huge truck slowly maneuvered its way thru the assorted cars who had stopped to watch the carnage. Walt visibly breathed a sigh of relief, though he still kept a bead on the buffalo.

Whoever was in the truck just eased up behind the bull and bumped him in the butt. The buffalo wheeled, smashed his head into the truck bumper, and the truck just inched him backwards off the road. Just a slow, constant push.

"Vic, help that woman in the car!" Walt yelled, never taking his eyes off the buffalo.

Vic grabbed the first aid kit and ran. She saw the buffalo back up, shake his head, and then kind of half heartedly ram the truck once more, before he turned around and trotted off. She thought it was the most amazing thing she'd ever seen in her life. As she opened the woman's car door, she realized that Mathias and one of his deputies had pulled up in a cruiser with the lights flashing, and the deputy had a shotgun across his lap. And there was something strange about it? Mathias flicked a salute at the man driving the big truck, and the deputy threw up his hand. The man waved back at them, and they just drove away.

"I'm fine, dear. Sorry to be so much trouble." The elderly lady said, and patted Vic's hand.

Vic checked her vital signs anyway. A young man that she didn't know jogged up to the car, ignoring Walt's order to get back in his car.

"I'm a paramedic." He said to Vic. "Can I do something to help?"

"I _told_ you to get back in your car." Walt said, as he approached.

"He's trying to help, Walt." Vic said, as she took a piece of gauze and daubed at the cuts on the woman's arm.

"You ok, Mrs. Folson?" The big man from the truck asked. Vic noted that Walt didn't tell _him_ to get back in his vehicle.

"Thank you, Wally. Seeing how you handled that was almost worth getting rammed." Mrs. Folson said.

Wally nodded to her, then turned to the kid. "Thanks for offering to help, but I think they've got it under control."

"Ok." The guy said, and then he looked at Wally like he didn't know what to say. Then, "I think that was the most incredible thing I've ever seen in my life."

"Had a lot of practice." Wally said.

The guy just nodded to them and backed off.

"I'll take you home, Mrs. Folson." Wally said. "I don't think your car is going anywhere."

"Walt, I think she needs to go to the hospital to get checked out." Vic said, knowing the woman would probably overrule her, but listen to him.

"Oh, no dear, I'm fine." She patted Vic's hand again.

"I'll take you to Kel's." Wally said. "That way if you get dizzy there'll be somebody to help you. Or you can come home with me, Sue'd love to have you. Maybe you can straighten out Sissy, we've about given up."

"You can just drop me off at Kel's. I don't know if I'm up to tangling with Sissy."

"I don't know if a T-Rex is up to tangling with Sissy." Walt said, halfway under his breath. Wally grinned a little, but he didn't laugh.

After Violet had finally gotten there, and towed away Mrs. Folson's car, Walt had asked Vic for her cell phone, and called Ruby and told her they had to have something to eat, to call Ferg to come in early, but she already had.

"They had on _muffs."_ Vic said suddenly.

"Huh?" Walt asked, shooting her a sideways glance.

"Mathias and his deputy had on earmuffs."

Walt nodded. "It about blows your head off when you shoot a shotgun from inside a car."

"They were going to shoot the buffalo from _inside the car?"_ Vic asked, horrified.

"Safest way to do it." Walt said.

"But isn't that illegal?"

"Mathias _is_ the law on the Rez."

"Mathias is an asshole, and we're not on the Rez." Vic said.

"He's an asshole who dropped what he was doing and came to help Mrs. Folson." Walt corrected. "If that bull had rammed her car door, he could have killed her."

"Yeah, I know that." Vic said, embarassed.

Walt placed another call and told Henry to get them some cheeseburgers ready, they were on their way. Vic headed into the restroom the second they got there. As soon as she came out, she saw a drunk grab one of Henry's part time waitresses. When he didn't let go, she brained him with a tray, and they both fell in the floor. Viv was a tough college girl whose Mom was a _Windy_ , and had actually named her _Vivien Leigh._ She was more than capable of looking after herself. But Vic didn't even think about it before she tackled the drunk. There were plenty of cowboys in the bar who would have intervened, but she was closer, and she'd had a very _bad_ day.

It took Walt and Henry both to pry her off the guy, mainly because Walt was laughing his ass off. When they finally got her loose, a big cowboy picked the drunk up and threw him out the door. Everybody cheered, and then all the cowboys had tipped their hats and raised their beers to Vic. She was mortified. That was the night she met Ranger Parker.

"Vic! Jesus!" Suddenly, it wasn't _Walt_ holding her, but Ferg. "Jesus, Vic!" She thought he was crying. "Please calm down! I can't - I can't let you kill him!"

She didn't know what had happened. Ferg was holding her, with his arms around her waist from behind her, and Parker was on the ground. _Somebody had beat him to a bloody pulp_. She didn't remember doing it. But suddenly, she couldn't breathe, her chest hurt, both her hands were bleeding, and she was crying. No, it was raining. Then she realized that Ferg was _crying,_ and she was crying too.

They collapsed on the ground, and Vic struggled for breath. When Ferg tried to pull her upright, she recoiled.

"Vic! Look at me!" Ferg panted. "Let me sit you up! LOOK! AT! ME!"

His words finally penetrated, and she stopped struggling, and he propped her up against the tree trunk. "Breathe." He said gently, holding both her hands. "Just breathe. It's ok."

She saw Parker scrambling to his feet, and cast a frantic look at Ferg. "It's ok. " Ferg said, "I got it all on video." At the exclamation of dismay from her, "Vic, we can finally stop him. I may not have enough to get him arrested, but I bet I've got enough to get him fired."

"Great." Vic said, swiping at her face. "My ass is going to be all over you tube."

"I wouldn't do that to you."

"Oh, shit, I _tore_ up my hands!" Vic couldn't believe how bad they hurt now that she wasn't so mad. She let Ferg help her up.

"I'll drop you off at the ER while I go around to the morgue."

Mathias had had the morning from hell at a tribal council meeting. Bill Rogers had gotten so angry that he'd stormed out over the other tribal council members repeated refusals to give Mathias _a little_ more money for the department. Mathias knew that it was a complete and total waste of time to tell them that his cruiser needed to be replaced with an SUV, but he said what he'd come to say anyway. Sometimes he thought Harve was right. He had no idea why he did this job.

Then Nighthorse, who shouldn't have even been on the tribal council to begin with, stood up and said, "I think we made a serious mistake when we allocated the casino profits. We set aside some money for the Rez clinic, but we should have given some to the tribal police as well. We didn't take into consideration that the casino's existence automatically means more calls for them, which costs them more money. I, for one, don't think it's right, that our policemen buy supplies out of their own pockets." He looked at all the tribal council members. "Most of you have 4WD vehicles, but you expect our tribal police chief to get by in a car?"

When nobody said anything, he threw up his hands in disgust. "Mathias, go down to the Chevy dealership and pick out what you need. I'll pay for it."

"That's not -" Mathias stopped. He _damn well_ did need a better vehicle. "Thank you, Jacob." He said.

"What are we going to do with the car that nobody wants?" One of the older ladies asked, eyes twinkling. She was the only one who always voted to give Mathias more money.

"Sell it and give the money to Mathias to run his department with." Jacob said. Mathias couldn't believe it when that was unanimously approved.

He'd spent the rest of the morning patrolling the back roads. This was the part of police work that he liked, and so seldom got to do anymore. It seemed like the tribal council was always on his back about something. It was starting to snow again and he would be really glad to get rid of this infernal car. He would go down to the Chevy dealership tomorrow, he decided.

He saw Violet's wrecker pulled off the road, and slowed to a stop. All of Benson's wreckers looked alike, and one of Vi's friends had made the mistake of flagging down Boulin, when she thought it was Violet driving. The day after that, Violet had turned her grandkids loose on the truck. Her wrecker now sported a paint job that included flowers and stick animals and people. It actually looked pretty good.

Then he noticed the Highway Patrol SUV in front of the wrecker, and realized that big, tough, Trooper Williams, the man who _never_ even cracked a smile, was having a snowball fight with Violet. Trooper Williams looked embarrassed, but Violet just kept pelting him.

Mathias just waved at them and drove on." Good for Violet." he thought, smiling to himself.

Trooper Williams caught Violet. "You'll pay for that!" He said laughing.

"Oh I do hope so." She grinned back at him. He was just leaning down to kiss her, when she said, "HOLY SHIT!" He spun around, his weapon already drawn, just in time to see the green forest service truck come out of a side road at a high rate of speed and plow into Mathias's cruiser.

"MATTY!" Violet screamed. She was already in the wrecker and moving before Williams got in his car.

"Matty!" Violet yanked the car door open, and grabbed him, unbuckling his seat belt, and hugging him close, even as she put pressure on the wound on his head that was bleeding.

"SHIT." Mathias said. "What the hell?" Then, "Violet, move -" She barely managed to get out of the way before he threw up.

"Matt, here, lean back against me." Trooper Williams had climbed in the passenger side of the car. He picked up the bottle of water that Matty had that had been thrown in the floorboard. "Rinse your mouth out."

"Thanks." Mathias said, weakly, thinking he was going to pass out. He was sandwiched between Trooper Williams and Violet, who was still holding pressure on his head, that was bleeding steadily. "What the hell hit me?" he managed.

"Hospital." Violet said, ignoring him.

"Hospital." Williams agreed, sliding out of the car, easing Matty over the console, and carrying him like he was a child.

"Hey, I can walk." Mathias protested weakly.

"Mathias, shut up. You've scared Violet half to death and taken ten years that I don't have to spare, off of my life." Williams said, as he carried him to the wrecker.

"Kiss her." Matty said, grinning at him.

"What?" The Trooper wrapped a blanket around him and buckled him in the seat, as Violet duct taped a handful of paper towels over his head wound.

"Kiss her." Matty said. He was grinning the same way he had when he was five years old and knew that he'd been bad, but he was so damn cute, he knew he was going to get away with it. It had melted Violet's heart then and it did the same thing now. And she was _really_ afraid that he was seriously injured.

"Oh, what the hell." Violet said. "Be still." She pointed her index finger at Matty, leaned around him, and kissed the Trooper on the mouth. "Sorry honey, that's all I got time for." She said, and Williams laughed.

"Cady?" Mathias asked suddenly, looking around. "Where's Cady?"

"She's fine, Matt." Violet said. "I'll have her meet us at the hospital, ok?"

"Ok." Mathias said, and then he passed out.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Sheriff's Department." Walt said, as he picked up the phone. He'd sent Ruby to lunch and told her to just bring him back something. As angry as she was at him, he figured she probably wouldn't. He had made a mistake firing Vic. He didn't know how to apologize, and he certainly didn't know how to explain.

"Walt, I'm tied up here at the morgue." Ferg said. "I think they gave me ten pages of forms to fill out, and I'm sorry, but I don't know how to do this."

"Did Vic kill Ranger Parker?" Walt asked, half kidding. Ruby had told him where they'd gone.

"She tried." Ferg said, and it sounded like he was going to start crying.

Walt rubbed his head, that hadn't quit hurting since he'd had words with Vic that morning. Or _not_ had words. He wasn't exactly sure why what had happened, had. He just knew that he'd screwed up with Vic, yet again. "Tell me what happened, Ferg." He said slowly. Then, " Wait a minute. Where's Vic?"

"In the emergency room getting her hands looked at. She beat the crap out of him, Walt. I didn't want to hurt her, and I couldn't get her off him."

"Hold on, I've got another call." Walt said, and punched the second line. "Sheriff's department." He said.

"This is Trooper Williams." The gravelly voice said. " And we are not having this conversation. _Just listen._ Don't say anything to me."

"Oh, shit." Walt thought, with a feeling of dread.

"I heard Parker calling for help this morning, with a drunk in a tree stand. Well, somebody beat the hell out of him. And this is one time I'd just look the other way. But he caused a serious accident. He's dead, and I don't know how bad Mathias is hurt. There was over a gallon of liquor and some drug paraphernalia In Parker's truck. I've documented it and sent copies to everybody I know. I'm not letting them hang Mathias out to dry over this. But _if_ that pretty little deputy of yours laid a hand on Parker, you better be trying to protect her. The little asshole Fed that will be investigating this, is the one she punched." And he disconnected.

" _Vic had hit a Fed?"_ Walt knew nothing about that. "Ferg, go get Vic and take her to Mrs. Allred's. Don't let her talk to anybody, and see if you can manage to _lose_ her phone. Just bring all that paperwork with you. And you can tell me about Vic hitting a Fed when you get here."

"Do I have to?" Ferg almost whispered.

"I think you do." Walt said, and hung up.

"Why are we going to Mrs. Allred's?" Vic asked when Ferg stopped the truck in the drive.

"Cady's with Emma." Ferg said. That's all Walt had told him.

"I guess she's still upset from yesterday." Vic said. "I'm really sorry, Ferg. I left you a mess to clean up."

"It was worth it to see you kick his ass." Ferg said, and laughed. He caught Vic around the waist and sat her down from the truck, gently took her arm, and helped her up the sidewalk.

"I hear you've been busy." Leo said, as he opened the door.

Vic flushed. "I lost my temper. I'm sorry to bother you again, Mrs. A."

"I enjoy the company!" Mrs. A assured her. "Ferg, you got time for some hot chocolate?"  
"I got to go back to work, but thanks anyway." He said, as he left.

Vic sat down at the table with Mrs. A and Leo. " Ferg said that he was fat when he was a little boy. But I found a picture of him with Laughing Bird, and he was just normal sized ."

Leo, evidently quite at home at Mrs. A's, went to the bookcase and pulled out a scrapbook. He leafed thru some pages, and laid the book in front of Vic . The two open pages were all shots of a really pretty lady riding a two tone horse, that Walt had told her was called a _pinto,_ in a big parade.

"Who is this lady?" Vic asked.

"That's Ferg's Mom, sweetie." Mrs. A said. "Before her accident."

"What happened?" Vic asked. She would never have thought this woman, who actually reminded her of a younger version of Emma, could be Ferg's Mom. The Mrs. Ferguson that she knew, was a kind, motherly lady, who tried to feed everybody, but she wasn't very active at all.

"She was an endurance rider." Leo said. "One day poor Rocket," he tapped the photo so she knew who he meant, "had an aneurism. He fell on her and she was pinned under him for over twelve hours before we found her."

"Before _you_ found her." Mrs. A corrected.

"I didn't know horses had aneurisms." Vic whispered.

"Betty," Leo pointed to the photo so that Vick knew he meant Ferg's Mom " was in and out of the hospital for like a year and a half. I think her leg was broken in four places."

"Poor Ferg lived with Walt and Martha for awhile." Mrs. A said. "His Dad drove a truck, and he had to work to keep his insurance. Those were some really bad years."

"We thought Arlo Boulin had shot that poor horse, it was such a mess, so I had some of the deputies stay out there all night with a bonfire going to keep the scavengers off him." Leo said. "Malachi was mad as hell at me. He didn't want the Feds poking around for fear they might find some of his misdeeds."

When Vic looked confused, Mrs. A said, "Arlo, senior. He's a piece of work too."

At the same time, Leo said, "I was the tribal police chief for thirty years, but I'd retired a little before that happened."

" I didn't know that." Vic said. All she knew was that Nighthorse had hired him when he fired Malachi. She looked at Mrs. A, "So Mathias's Dad got killed, Laughing Bird disappeared, and Ferg's Mom got hurt. No wonder Cady said -" she stopped. She wasn't sure she should say that in front of Mrs. A.

"Those poor kids got cheated out of the last of their childhood." Leo said.

"And we didn't know what to do with poor Ferg, except feed him." Mrs. A said. "Cady could always eat like a horse, and get by with it. She's just got that kind of metabolism."

"Sorry, Troop, got one in front of you." Doc Bloomfield said as he saw the Trooper wheeling in a body bag on a gurney.

"How bad is Mathias hurt?"

"Broken ribs and eight stitches in his head."

"I want a full tox screen on this one." Williams said, pointing at the body bag. "No matter what anybody else tells you. _If_ I have to pay for it out of my own pocket. But if he happens to have some pre-existing injuries -" he stopped, seemed to be searching for words.

Doc Bloomfield, who was nobody's fool, in spite of what Walt thought, understood what he was _not_ saying, and assumed that Violet had beat Ranger Parker up before his accident. "I know he's a meth head. He could have been unconscious before he even hit Mathias."

Williams sighed, as he took the clipboard with the forms that the morgue attendant handed him.

"I'll take over here." A voice said, and Williams looked at the squirrely little FBI agent. "It was a tragic accident and no autopsy is necessary." He said to Doc Bloomfield, gesturing to the body on the table.

"Parker's over there." Bloomfield pointed to the gurney. "Or is it Mr. Tompkins that you don't want an autopsy done on?"

"Ranger Parker." The Fed snapped, and he grabbed the clipboard from Trooper Williams.

Mathias's left hand hurt like hell. It felt like it was crushed. And he couldn't quite manage to get his eyes open. It hurt to breathe. He definitely had some broken ribs. He just needed to lie still and hope whoever had kicked the crap out of him was done, because he wasn't going to be getting up for awhile. He hoped to hell he hadn't just come off a bull, because if he had, he was dead.

It wasn't quite so bad the next time he tried to open his eyes. He didn't know what had happened. He thought his left hand was ruined though. He finally managed to focus, and realized he was in the hospital. Cady was sitting in a chair next to the bed, and she had a death grip on his hand. She'd been crying, and it looked like she'd fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion. He wanted to tell her to ease off a little, that she was hurting him, but then he thought, maybe he was dying, and she was the link that was holding him there.

He looked around the room, expecting to see Rose, but it was Emma in the chair on the other side of the bed. She had a Drovers magazine in her lap, but she wasn't reading. She looked exhausted too. He must have made a sound or something, because she looked up at him. He had never understood why his Uncle Robert had married a somewhat plain white woman when he could have had any of the beauties on the Rez, until he'd seen Emma smile. He needed to tell her that he loved her, and the reason they fought all the time was that they were exactly alike.

WHOA! He must have gotten a really good whack on the head.

Emma put her finger to her lips, and hugged him very gently. She kissed the top of his head before she whispered in his ear. "I have to go get the nurse. Please don't proposition Cady again, you embarrassed her half to death the first time." When Mathias glared at her, she said, "Yes, you _did._ "

Emma disappeared, to get the nurse, he assumed. How long had he been in here? He felt like he'd been hit by a truck. _Everything_ was starting to hurt. He tried to shift his body a little to see if he could get more comfortable, and Cady's eyes snapped open.

"Oh, Matty! Please be alright! You scared us half to death." She pressed her lips against the side of his neck.

"What happened?" Mathias managed.

She shook her head. "Doesn't matter."

He remembered going to the tribal council meeting, and it had been a disaster. _As usual._ And then Nighthorse had blasted all of them, and offered to buy the police department an SUV. Violet and Trooper Williams had been playing in the snow like kids. And Violet had kissed Trooper Williams in the wrecker. No, none of that _could_ of had happened, he had just knocked the shit out of his head.

"What's your name?" the nurse asked him, as she took his pulse.

"Henry Standing Bear." Mathias said, to annoy Emma.

"He's just being a jackass." Emma said to the nurse.

"What do you do for a living, Mr. Bear?" The nurse continued. Mathias didn't know who she was.

"I do the PBRA circuit." He said, figuring she wouldn't even know what it was.

"Aren't you a little old to ride bulls?" She stuck a thermometer in his mouth, and Mathias glared at her.

"Matty, please be nice." Cady said. "Tell the truth. Don't make them misdiagnose you." She looked like she was going to start crying again.

When the nurse took the thermometer out of his mouth, he said, "My name's Mathias, and I'm the chief of the tribal police department, and I am _not_ too old to ride bulls."

The nurse looked at her clipboard, and then looked at Emma. " _You're_ his mother?"

Emma gave the woman a look that would have made anybody who knew her back pedal in a hurry. "Yes." She said. She didn't want the woman throwing her out. She hoped to hell that she didn't have to make any medical decisions, because Rose was upcountry on a hunt with Omar.

"You don't look like a half breed." The nurse said to Mathias.

"I'm _Cheyenne."_ Emma said, thru clenched teeth.

"Everyone seems to be Cheyenne so they can get a share of the casino profits."

" _Oh, shit."_ Mathias thought. Emma actually thought she _was_ Cheyenne, and she was going to kill that stupid nurse. Cady looked like she was going to help her. There was no way in hell he could stop them. "Use your brains before you use your fists." Leo had told him long ago.

"Don't upset Cady!" Mathias said to Emma, and breathed a sigh of relief when she sat back down.

"Who are you?" The nurse asked Cady.

"My girlfriend." Mathias said. "And she's not leaving."

"Well I need to check your catheter, but the ladies are welcome to stay if they want."

"You can just take the damn thing out." Mathias said, thru clenched teeth.

"We'll go out in the hall for a few minutes." Emma said, coming around to help Cady get up. The nurse closed the door as they left.

"I hope he doesn't kill her." Cady whispered, as Emma sat her down in a chair in the hall.

"He'll have to get in line behind me." Emma said. "If she wants to snipe at Matty and me, that's fine, but she better not be treating our tribal elders like that."

"And let me apologize for Mathias." When Cady turned purple again, she said, "Well, let me apologize for myself. I'm sorry _I_ embarrassed you. I would have told you to just get in bed with him. He would have settled down if you snuggled up to him." At Cady's look of shock, "Honey, people do not do the wild thing when they have broken ribs -" When Cady started laughing, she said, "Ok, we _are_ talking about Mathias. I give up."

Both of them were still laughing when Nurse Nasty came out and told them she was done. Mathias was gritting his teeth, he was so mad. "Tell me what happened." He demanded.

"Inez called me and told me you'd been in a car accident and I needed to go to the hospital." Emma said. "And I understand why you did it, but it might have been nice if you'd told me that _I_ was your emergency contact."

At Cady's confused look, Mathias said. "Mom had a nervous breakdown when Dad got killed. I'm not doing that to her again." He sighed, " _Please_ tell me what happened. Did I kill somebody? I can't - I can't remember."

"All Violet told me was that someone ran into you and she was taking you to the hospital." Cady said. "And that you were asking for me."

"Violet brought me to the hospital. In the wrecker?" Mathias asked. "Then, she did kiss Williams. I didn't imagine it."

He missed the absolutely horrified looks that Cady and Emma shot each other. _He was seriously hurt_. They knew it. Violet was a kind, loving woman who mothered everybody, and Trooper Williams was a big angry man who quite frequently acted like a grizzly bear with a tooth ache. There was _no way_ the two of them would ever get together.

Henry got up at 4am to start breakfast. He had called Emma three times the night before, and left messages, and she hadn't called him back. He had _almost_ called Sue, and just told her that all he wanted to know was if Emma was ok, but he had stopped himself. Emma was mad. He had no money and no prospects. Nothing to offer her. _Except himself._ Maybe it was better this way. He felt like banging his head against the wall though.

A little before 5am, he heard someone open the outside door, and come in the cook shack. Well, the men were in a hurry for breakfast this morning.

"Not quite ready yet!" He yelled.

But it was Inez who stepped into the kitchen. She looked like she'd been crying, and she was nervously smoothing the creases in her uniform trousers. "Do I look alright, Henry?" she asked.

 _She must have had a fight with Bill, and there was no way in hell he wanted to get in the middle of that._

"You look lovely, and very professional, Inez." Henry said, which was true.

"I'm just being silly." She looked like she was going to burst into tears again any second. "I'm in charge, and I have to do a good job."

 _There had been a Tribal Council meeting yesterday. Had Mathias gotten so angry that he had quit? Or had the Tribal Council fired him? Surely he would have heard. Except - Most people had called him on the landline phone at the Pony. Very few people had his cell number._

"Did Mathias get mad and quit?"

"He was in a car accident yesterday." She looked into the eating area to make sure that none of the cowboys had slipped in. "Emma and Cady spent the night with him at the hospital. He's hurt, Henry, and you know how he is." She tried to smile. "It's all a big mess. The Feds have taken over."

 _Which meant that Mathias had been in a traffic accident with a white man._ Even though he didn't like Mathias, he hoped the accident hadn't been his fault. "Was anyone else injured?"

Inez just looked exhausted. Which meant the other party was dead. And she wouldn't have been so upset unless - The person who had been killed was also a government employee. Which left - "Ranger Parker." Henry said.

"He's related to some muckety muck in California, and that's why they sent him here. I guess they thought there were less women for him to get in trouble with. I'm just scared they're going to hang Matty out to dry." She swiped at her eyes. "Trooper Williams saw the whole thing - well, he and Violet did, and he said it was Parker's fault."

"How badly is Mathias hurt?" He might need to call Emma again after all. And why had _Cady_ gone to the hospital? Unless it was just to sit with Emma. Where was Rose?

"He's got some broken ribs and he had stitches in his head, but he hadn't really woken up the last time I talked to Emma. She said she was turning her phone off because it wouldn't stop ringing, and she didn't even know half of the women who were calling her."

 _So maybe she hadn't gotten any of his messages at all._ The look on his face must have said everything, because Inez said, "Hang in there, Henry. She'll get over being mad at you."

All the ranch hands had left to start their day, and Henry was just sitting down to his own breakfast, when his phone rang, and he saw it was Emma.

"I'm sorry, Henry." She said. "I turned my phone off last night. Mathias was in a car accident yesterday and Cady and I have been at the hospital."

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright." Henry said.

"I'm fine, and I'm sorry I got so mad at you. I hope I didn't hurt you, because I know I hit you." He thought she was crying.

"I _know_ I hurt you." Henry said.

'Mathias gave me a lecture and said that you saved me from getting shot." She said, ignoring what he'd said about hurting her, so he knew that he had.

"Is he alright?"

" At first I just thought he was being his normal hateful self, but now I'm afraid he's got brain damage. He's said some really crazy things. He told the nurse that he was _you_. And that he was a professional bull rider. Then he saw how much he was upsetting Cady. But then he started with more craziness. I told Doc Bloomfield to give him a brain scan, or whatever you call it, to make sure he wasn't bleeding inside his head. The kid is not going to be happy until he gives _me_ a stroke." Emma said.

Henry felt like pointing out that the _kid_ was thirty something, and a self centered asshole, but Emma was upset, so instead he said, "Where's Rose?"

"She took out a hunt with Omar. She moved in with him. I did tell you, didn't I?"

If she had, he'd forgotten it in all the excitement from yesterday. "So Cady came to stay with you."

"The poor girl is in love with Matty. And Henry, I love him, but he doesn't date nice girls. He's slept with half the women on the Rez. Hell, he's slept with half the women in _Absaroka County!_ And if he hurts Cady, I'm going to kill him."

" _And I will help you."_ Henry thought to himself. They talked a few minutes more, and hung up. He looked at his breakfast that he no longer wanted. The daughter of his heart was in love with one of his enemies. He didn't know what to do about that.

Mathias was stretched out on Emma's couch with her laptop. "I didn't figure you'd mind." He said.

"I'll get you a towel. You're going to burn yourself." She said, looking at the computer sitting on his bare stomach.

He shook his head. "It feels good."

"You give up on the pain pills?"

"They just make me puke."

"I'm sorry, Matty."

"You want your computer back?"

She shook her head at him and grinned. "Don't be reading all my emails from my lover though."

"You need to keep Henry." Mathias said, and then thought, " _Oh, shit, I should have kept my mouth shut."_

"We have managed to be nice to each other for three days." Emma said, giving him a disgusted look. " _You_ started it. So let me tell you something. If you have some crazy notion that you're going to get back at Walt Longmire by playing poor Cady for a fool, I will kick your -" She stopped at the quick flash of hurt across his face, before he hid it and retreated behind his mask of indifference. "Oh, Matty!" She said. "You love her! I'm an idiot. I'm sorry."

He just shook his head at her, and she knew that if he hadn't been hurt, and he'd had any way to leave, he'd have been out of there in a flash.

"I have something for you." She said carefully. "Please don't take off."

"I don't have a vehicle." He said thru gritted teeth.

"And you full well know that half of the ranch trucks always have the keys in them." Emma said over her shoulder, as she left the room.

He couldn't believe that she thought so little of him. But then, he had inherited the nickname, "Casanova of the Rez" from his Uncle Robert.

Emma held up her hand and showed him the ring she was now wearing.

" _Great."_ Mathias thought. " _Just great. Henry already asked her to marry him, and now I've put my foot in it and she won't, just to spite me."_

"Your Uncle Robert made this for me." She said, sliding it off her finger and putting it in his hand. "From his great grandfather's watch chain." At Matty's bemused look, "He probably took it off a white man that he scalped. Anyway, I would really like it if you would give it to Cady when you're ready. Or if you don't want it -" she looked upset, like maybe she'd done the wrong thing. "I can keep it and give it to Caitlin when she's older."

"I want it." Mathias said, squeezing her fingers for just a second.

"Things are different now. I hope it will be easier for you and Cady." She grinned at him, then looked like she was going to say something else. "Somebody's coming." She said instead.

Mathias still hadn't heard a car, but the dogs started barking, and he got up and followed Emma to the door, to see the Tribal SUV and the Highway Patrol SUV both coming up the driveway.

"I won't let them take you." Emma said, looking frantically at Mathias, before she started to head back inside.

He caught her arm. "Emma, you're not going to shoot anybody." What hadn't she told him? She evidently thought they had come to haul him off to jail. Then, "Wait a minute! Violet's driving! That's my _new_ vehicle that Nighthorse bought me!"

"What?" Emma looked at him in shock. When Violet parked and got out, she was still standing there with her mouth open.

"What's wrong, Emma?" Violet asked.

"I made Doc Bloomfield give him another MRI." Emma said, looking like she was going to start crying. "I thought he had lost his mind."

"Matty, you need to get some clothes on." Violet said, as he hopped in his car, barefooted. "It's too cold out here."

"Let him play." Trooper Williams said, and grinned at her.

Emma turned white as a sheet and looked like she was going to pass out. "Um - um -" she stammered. "Want some coffee, or hot chocolate?"

"Thanks, but I'm on duty." Trooper Williams said. "Violet wanted Matt to have his new car. Make sure you take his keys from him though, I hear he's not cleared to drive for another couple days."

"Thank you." Emma managed. Then, "Thanks, Vi." Looking at Matty inspecting all the gadgets in the car. "It'll give him something to do. He was getting pretty bored."

Violet just grinned at her, and Trooper Williams opened the car door for her, and they left.

Emma got in the passenger side of the SUV with Mathias. She reached and put her hand over his. "Matty, you have got to stop being a jackass. You scared Cady and me really badly. I made Doc Bloomfield give you another MRI."

"Because I said I was Henry?" Mathias asked, not really paying attention.

"Because you said Violet and Troop were making out in the wrecker. And then you said that Nighthorse bought you a new car -" her voice broke. "I thought there was something really wrong with you."

"Well, Violet and Troop is pretty far fetched." Mathias said. "But they seem to really like each other."

" _I_ noticed. I wonder how long that's been going on? I'll get you your coat." Emma said. "The last thing I need is you getting pneumonia."

She retrieved his coat and boots and helped him put them on, and then he drove them around the barnyard twice, even though he wasn't supposed to.

Mathias called the office the next morning after Emma had left to start her day. "Hey, Harve, are you busy?"

"Sorry boss, I'm not supposed to talk to you." Harv said, but he sounded like he was teasing, and Mathias wasn't sure if he was or not.

"What happened when Uncle Robert first married Emma?"

"You mean when they kicked him off the Tribal Council?"

" _Shit!"_ Mathias said. Had he known that, and forgotten it? Or had he just been a kid and never realized what was going on?

"Tate Hunt made some kind of big stink about how a _real_ _Indian_ wouldn't marry a white woman. That man was an asshole."

"So they voted Uncle Robert off?" Mathias asked, clenching his fists.

"Leo told them they were fools, that not all white people were evil, and there was no way in hell that Mrs. Nez would have married them if she hadn't approved."

"Mrs. Nez married them?" Mathias knew that he hadn't known _that._

"Mrs. Nez has always thought a lot of Emma. I don't know that Mrs. Nez is really a witch -" Harve stopped. "But she just knows stuff. And you can't lie to her. She got really mad at the Tribal Council, and cursed all of them, except Leo."

"I'm afraid to ask." Mathias said.

"Well Tate Hunt was building a huge new barn, and it caught on fire and burnt to the ground. And then his wife ran off with the milk man."

"We've never had milk men."

"The guy that drove the milk tanker for the dairy. You remember the big Jersey dairy, don't you?"

"Yeah." Mathias said, feeling like an idiot.

"Landis Pettigrew got drunk and passed out on the railroad track and got run over by the midnight train. Sandra Logan, well, she'd been a beauty queen. All her hair fell out. She demanded they give Robert his seat back before anything else happened to her. She resigned, and took off for Canada, I think. But Robert wouldn't go back. Said he had a new wife to spoil and he was going to spend all his time with her."

"Tell me about my car accident."

"I'm not supposed to talk to you."

"Somebody's dead." Mathias said. "Emma thought they'd come to haul me off to jail yesterday."

"It wasn't your fault. We've got two eyewitnesses. And the other party was, shall we say, _intoxicated."_

"But who -"

"Inez will have my head if she finds out I talked to you at all." Harve said, and hung up.

"Hey, Red." Mathias said when he answered his phone, recognizing Cady's ringtone.

"How are you feeling, Matty?" Cady asked him.

"Just sore. I'm ok." He said, which wasn't true, but he wasn't going to complain to her.

"I need to talk to you and I couldn't find anybody to give me a ride out to the ranch."

"Just spit it out." He said, holding back a sigh. She was going to tell him that she didn't want to see him anymore. She wasn't going to be able to handle him being a cop.

"Branch left me his house." She blurted out. "And I don't want it. Lark told me that I wasn't stupid, that that could be security for me later on. She and Lucian are going to lease it for a year, before we decide anything."

"She and Lucian are going to live in Branch's house?

"They really like Branch's house. Nobody even wants to go to Barlow's. And there's nowhere to live since the casino opened. You know Vic couldn't find anyplace."

"What else?" He knew there was more.

"I found out my opposing council is Dow." She sighed. " I'm scared of him, and he knows it. I wanted to do this by myself, Matty. But now I'm just afraid I'll screw it up. I'll never be half the lawyer that Lark is."

"Well, I don't imagine that Lark knows how to pull a calf. I know she never won a barrel racing championship. And I seem to remember that Lucian said she was the only woman in the world who could completely ruin a cup of coffee."

"Emma can't make coffee either." Cady said, and they both laughed. "Thanks, Matty." She said.

"I thought I might drive up and talk to Marigold since I'm not really supposed to be doing anything." Mathias said. "You want to come with? You can practice being a lawyer on _her._ "

Cady burst out laughing. "Thank you, Matty. You made me feel better. Are you sure you feel up to driving that far?"

"I'm about to go nuts. I moved into the bunkhouse so that Emma and I don't kill each other." Doc Bloomfield had only let him leave the hospital on the condition that he stay with somebody. He couldn't go to Jeanne's, because Caitlin regarded him as her own personal jungle gym, and there was no way his ribs would withstand that.

Cady couldn't believe they were doing this. What had really shocked her was that when she had told Walt that she and Mathias were driving to Montana, and probably spending the night, that _all_ he had done was tell her to make sure she had her gun, and to be careful.

She glanced over at Mathias. It was snowing again, and he was concentrating on driving. He looked so tired. She knew his ribs had to be bothering him. She wondered if any of them would ever be able to relax until they had Boulin locked up. And Charlie's case - she had been so excited that she might be able to help him. And now, she was just afraid that she was going to screw it up. She didn't think she'd be able to live with herself if she lost. Lark had told her, long ago, that sometimes being a lawyer really sucked.

They didn't talk at all, and Cady was relieved when Mathias finally pulled up at the front door of the ski lodge. He'd insisted on putting the reservation in his name, and paying for it. They'd be sharing a room. Cady wasn't sure how she felt about _that_ either. She hoped they had two beds. She was going to feel really bad if Mathias had to sleep on the floor. He was hurt too, and neither one of them could move very fast.

The valet opened her door for her, but Mathias must have scared him, because instead of helping her out as he'd started to, he just held the door open and nodded politely to her while _Mathias_ got her out himself. The valet carried their few bags inside, and Mathias deposited Cady in a big armchair in front of the fireplace, and went to park the tribal SUV.

He was having second thoughts too, Cady realized. It had been one thing when they were talking about it at home. Mathias could rattle Marigold a little bit and see if she'd keep lying for Arlo, and Cady could hit her with the legal side of it. In theory, it had sounded great. But she wasn't so sure that she and Mathias being alone together for any amount of time was a good thing.

Mathias went up to the desk to check them in. Two ski bunnies had just come in from the slopes. They were both tall, blonde, and gorgeous, _and probably total airheads_ , Cady reflected, but they had _two working feet_. And she didn't think she was going to be able to deal with Mathias honestly until she got her cast off. He was being so _careful_ with her, and that wasn't _Mathias._ And she was having to be careful too, which she didn't like.

"Ooh….." One of the bunnies said. "I'd really like to share _his_ wigwam." She was looking at Mathias like she was going to jump him in the middle of the floor.

Cady felt a white hot spurt of rage, and if she could have gotten up, she swore that she would have yanked a handful of that blonde hair out - or broken the girl's face - she wasn't sure which. She hoped that Mathias hadn't heard her.

"Can I get you some coffee, ma'am?" One of the hostesses asked.

"Oh, God!" Now people were calling her _ma'am._ She was going to scream. "No, thank you." She said politely, and looked up at the server, whose name tag read, "Marigold Hoskins." Except she _wasn't_ Marigold. Cady knew that she knew the girl, but she couldn't remember her name. And the girl recognized her at the exact same time, and started backing away.

She'd seen Cady's crutches, and underestimated her. Cady launched to her feet, and grabbed her. The girl _who wasn't Marigold_ shoved her, and took off, and if the two blonde bunnies, who must not be as dumb as they looked, hadn't both caught Cady around her waist, she would have gone down.

"MATTY!" Cady screamed. "Get her!"

Mathias, having no idea what was quietly going on behind him, whirled around and instantly accessed the situation. He sprinted after the woman and grabbed her arm, and when she swung at him, cussing and screaming for all she was worth, he just dropped her on the floor, and cuffed her, in one efficient move.

Cady blinked, and he suddenly morphed into a Cheyenne warrior, his bronze skin glistening in the sunlight -

"Cady, you ok?" Mathias yelled, as he hauled the still screaming woman to her feet, and her fantasy evaporated.

"I'm ok!" Cady called back, wondering what was going on. She had just meant for him to _stop_ the girl, but whoever she was, she was fighting Mathias for all she was worth, and cussing a blue streak. And Mathias was _furious._ He wrestled the girl out the door, and Cady suddenly realized that every woman in the lobby was watching him. He was an attractive man, but when he got mad, and his eyes snapped like that, something about him just -

"Whew!" One of the older ladies said, and fanned herself with a ski brochure. "If I was twenty years younger, that man wouldn't know what hit him."

"More like thirty." Her companion said, and grinned. When the first woman slapped her with her brochure, "I need some _ice cream._ I don't know if it's that gorgeous hunk of man, or if I'm having a hot flash."

"It's _that_ man!" The girl behind the desk said, "But I think we're embarrassing his wife." And looked directly at Cady.

Cady knew she was turning purple. Everyone turned to look at her.

"Are you a cop too?" One of the ladies asked.

Cady shook her head. She didn't think she could talk. She was mortified.

"She still tried to help him though." One of the bunnies said, as she and her friend helped Cady sit back down. "Are you ok?" she whispered to Cady.

Her girlfriend punched her. "Just because your husband is _sex on a stick_ you don't want every other woman in the world drooling over him." She hissed. "I'm sorry." She said to Cady. "He's just -" Mathias walked back in the lobby then, and she faltered. "Really nice to look at." She finally said.

"Thanks." Mathias said to the two bunnies, instantly dismissing them, as he caught Cady's hands. "You ok?" he looked down at her worriedly.

Cady almost, _almost_ felt sorry for the two bunnies. Never mind that not five minutes ago she had been quite ready to rip one of thems heads off. It was quite apparent that no one had ever ignored them before. "Thanks." She said suddenly, realizing that she hadn't said a word to them.

They just grinned at her as they left, but she noticed that both of them were still checking Mathias out.

"Cady?" Mathias put his hand on her cheek. "You ok? Did she punch you?"

"No, Matty, I'm fine." Cady said, trying to figure out what had just happened. "Are you ok? You shouldn't have done that with your ribs." When he just shrugged it off, "Who _is_ that girl? I _know_ I know her, but?" she shrugged.

"Her name's Mary Little River and I've got at least three warrants for her arrest, and Walt's probably got some too."

"She's a -" Cady suddenly remembered the girl. She didn't know why she was embarrassed.

"She's a prostitute and a meth dealer." Mathias said flatly. "And since she appears to have assumed Marigold's identity, maybe a murderer as well." He looked at her worriedly. "You _sure_ you're ok?"

"Something going on here I need to know about?" A voice behind Mathias asked, and Cady got a good look at an older man wearing a sheriff's uniform, who did not look happy. And just like that, reality was back.

"Sorry, sir. I didn't mean for that to happen." Matty said, and his mask was back on. "My girlfriend and I just came up for the weekend and a woman I've got some warrants on turned out to be working here."

"Your _girlfriend?"_ The man said.

Cady didn't like the way he looked at Mathias. She didn't like the way he was talking down to him either. "My name's Cady Longmire. I'm Mathias's fiancé. We're getting married July 4th."

 _Dear God, she had actually said it out loud._ Mathias was going to kill her. He might be in a _little_ trouble for arresting somebody where he had no jurisdiction, but she'd just made it worse. He was looking at her like he didn't even know who she was.

"You Walt Longmire's kid?"

"Yes sir." Cady said. What she wanted to do was ask him what in the hell her being Walt's daughter had to do with any of this, but she decided she'd better keep her mouth shut.

"What did you plan to do with the woman?" The sheriff asked Mathias.

"Well I locked her in my car, so I could come make sure my _fiancé_ was ok. She shoved her down. And then I was going to call the locals." Mathias shifted his feet, "But she seems to have assumed another woman's identity. So maybe she's looking at murder as well."

"I'll haul her in, so you don't have to ruin your weekend." The sheriff said, and he and Mathias went outside.

Cady gritted her teeth. She _could not_ believe what she'd just done. She pulled her cell phone out of her purse and texted Vic, "Where's Dad?"

"Out on a call. Everything OK?" came back.

"Just need to ask him something." Cady typed back, and stuck her phone back in her purse. The last thing she needed was for the sheriff to come back in and see her frantically texting away.

Mathias came back, gave her a look that said he didn't even know who in the hell she was, and hauled her to her feet. He kept a tight hold on her arm as they got in the elevator, with the valet bringing their little bit of luggage.

Cady sat down on the bed, and decided that that had been a mistake. Mathias shut the door, and turned to her, his hands on his hips. He was _mad._

"It was really nice of you to inform me of our wedding date." He hissed.

"As far as I'm concerned, Mrs. Nez can marry us in your office when you can spare five minutes." Cady hissed back at him. _What was wrong with her?_

"That's not legal in the white man's world." Mathias said, and propped a foot on the bed.

"Well after Mrs. Nez marries us, we can skip on over to the justice of the peace."

"What kind of ring do you want?"

"What?" Cady looked at him in shock.

"What kind of engagement ring do you want?"

"I don't want a ring."

"Because this is all just a big joke to you." He had gone from being mad to something she didn't understand at all.

"I want a _home._ " Cady said. "I always thought it was stupid to waste so much money on a diamond when there were so many practical things you needed."

"You _have_ a house. Branch gave you his."

"I want a _home._ Like Jeanne has. With kids, and love and laughter, and dogs and cats underfoot, and the horses in the backyard. Like I used to have before Mom died."

"I have to live on the Rez." Mathias said.

"I want the _Walker's_ house." As the look on his face changed again, she grabbed for her computer. "Jeanne told me it's for sale." She pulled up the listing. "I emailed the realtor and I have a meeting on Monday."

"You want to live on the _Rez?"_ his voice was disbelieving.

"Most of my clients will be on the Rez." Cady reminded him. "It makes no sense for me to live off it. I always loved the Walkers house. It was a happy place, and Mrs. Walker made the best cookies. She spoiled Jeanne and I rotten."

Mathias actually took the computer and scrolled thru the photos. "I'll buy the house." He said.

"Matty, _what?"_ Cady looked at him in disbelief.

"I'm supposed to support my wife and kids. I'll buy the house." He said again. "You do want kids, right?"

"Not right this minute." Cady said. _This sounded like some kind of business merger._ There was nothing remotely romantic about it at all.

"Two?"

"A boy and a little girl, hopefully." Cady said, but what she wanted to say was _a little boy who looks just like you._

"I'll buy the house." Mathias said again, like it was a done deal. "You can help me pay for the repairs, and I know you'll want a new barn for Smokey."" At the look on her face, "You don't get it, do you?"

"Mathias, I know you're mad at me, and I'm sorry. I didn't like the way that sheriff talked down to you -"

"You think I'm not used to that? You think I don't deal with that everyday?" He looked at her, and then he was back to being sad again. "It's all a game to you." He got up and walked to the other end of the room.

"Mrs. Nez told me that you were a Cheyenne princess." He had his back to her, and she was afraid he might be crying. "She said it wasn't your fault that you were trapped in a white girl's body. And that you were my destiny, no matter how much I -" he clenched his fists, and then he sighed. " Just forget it. I'll take you home in the morning." He started to leave.

Cady grabbed for her crutches, dropped them. "SHIT!" she said, "Mathias, this isn't fair, I can't chase you!" she yelled at his back. As he opened the outside door, "I love you, you idiot! And I don't know why, because you are the biggest pain in the ass in the world! I was so scared that you were going to get killed at the Dino Mart, and I hadn't told you, and I was afraid if I said anything it would distract you and make you get shot, and I asked Vic what to do and she didn't know either. And she's just as stupid as I am because she's in love with Dad and he won't even acknowledge her - " her voice trailed off.

Mathias shut the door, but he didn't turn around. "We'll have to get married at Emma's." he said.

"What?" Cady asked, tears streaming down her face.

"There's not enough room at Mom's for the horses and all the wedding party." He said sensibly. "I mean, I listened to you and Jeanne talk about it for years. The big wedding on horseback. How romantic it was, because you saw it on that western. And Jeanne, for all her talking, had Mrs. Nez marry her and Lane in Mom's backyard. And the next day they went to the justice of the peace and had a white man's wedding. But they had their Cheyenne ceremony first." He cleared his throat. "You want to invite Bill Beeker? I mean, he was supposed to be the groom, not me."

"Bill's dead." Cady snapped at him, shocked and horrified that he remembered _all_ that from their childhood.

"Shit." Mathias said, finally turning around. "I'm sorry, Cady. I didn't know that."

"I'd already broken up with him." Cady said. "I decided I didn't want to be a rough stock rider's widow. _You_ had enough sense to stop riding bulls, and Lane was - Lane was careful."

"You might be a tribal cop's widow though." Mathias said, looking at her worriedly.

"You _will not_ do anything stupid and get yourself killed." Cady said. "I mean it, Matty."

"I'll try my best not to get myself killed." He wasn't even smiling. "Do you want some dinner?"

She shook her head. She wasn't hungry. This day had been too full already. _She and Mathias were getting married._ July 4th was her favorite holiday, she liked it even better than Christmas. And she did want Mrs. Nez to conduct part of the ceremony. Couples that Mrs. Nez married, _did not_ divorce. Cady didn't know if it was because they were _afraid_ of her, or just that they had more traditional values, but they worked thru their problems, went to counseling if they needed it, and stayed together. "Mathias," she said carefully. "I'm _not_ a princess."

"You are to me." He said, and for once he dropped that mask that he usually wore.

"Matty?"

"I am going to kiss my fiancé good night." Mathias said. And _this time,_ he actually did kiss her. Cady looked at him in shock.

"Go to sleep." Mathias said.

"Matty?" she knew she'd _never_ be able to sleep after that kiss.

"That's all you get sweetheart." He grinned at her. "Nobody is counting my first baby's birthday."

"Matty, people don't do that anymore!"

"Yeah, they do." He just looked at her. "And Mom and Ruby would kill us both."

"Not Emma?" Cady asked devilishly.

"Emma is a rancher. She's more practical."

"Will you at least lay down and talk to me?"

He gave her a look that said _she_ was an idiot.

"I solemnly swear not to ravish you." Cady said, holding up her right hand, and he actually laughed out loud.

"Ok." He said, and stretched out next to her.

"But I have a question?"

"Ok, lawyer lady."

"Do I have to wait 'til our wedding night to _have you?"_

"Just 'til your cast comes off."

"Matty, we could be careful -"

"I don't want to break anything else." He waggled his eyebrows at her and made her laugh. Then, "When you yelled at me I thought you had pulled out half of that blonde woman's hair, and wanted me to sit on her so you could finish the job."

"You _heard_ her."

"I don't want to share my _wigwam_ with anybody but you." He laughed again. "This brings back some memories." And then he sighed.

"Don't cry, Matty."

"I'm not." He said, and it was only when she brushed the tears from his face that he realized he was.

Mrs. Ferguson had had Rocket in training. She'd planned a twenty five mile ride, and had left the truck and trailer at Lane's parents the day before, so they had a way back home. All the kids had gotten off the school bus at Lane's to get in some roping practice.

Ferg was the editor of the rodeo newspaper, and a talented photographer. He usually just sat on a gentle horse and snapped photos, or acted as their timer.

Mathias usually roped with Lane, but it was a given, that if Jeanne was anywhere around, his buddy preferred being with her. So he roped with Cady, and didn't complain. He'd tried to be nicer since Laughing Bird was gone.

Emma came to pick he and Jeanne up. They were all still living at the ranch, and Mathias didn't think they'd ever go home. All of them had been shattered when Tommy had been killed, but Rose was just broken. He didn't think his Mom would ever be herself again.

That's when they realized that Mrs. Ferguson was long overdue. Emma went in the house and made some phone calls, and when she came back out, they could tell that she was really worried.

"Lane, you and Matty saddle up some fresh horses." She said. "Rocket's probably just thrown a shoe." _But if he had, all Betty would have had to do was lead him out to the highway and flag down a trucker. Any of them would have called a ride for her on the CB. And any of the local ranchers would have come to help her._

She's pulled a map from her truck, laid it on the hood, and was marking areas off in a grid, when Lucian and Leo pulled up, fishing poles still in the back of Lucian's truck. Mathias and Lane were saddling horses, Cady, Jeanne, and Ferg were giving the ones they'd been using a fast grooming.

Leo took the map, pointed at the kids, and started talking. Mathias figured that it would be teams of a kid and a grown up going out to search. But Lucian said something, Leo turned white as a sheet, and Emma grabbed hold of the truck mirror and looked like she was going to start crying. _Whatever_ Lucian had said, had definitely changed things. Emma opened the truck door and retrieved her gun belt and .45 and buckled it on.

Lucian evidently said something about her staying with the kids, and Emma let him have it. They were too far away for Mathias to hear the words, but he knew what she was saying. She was a better rider than any of them, and she knew the area like the back of her hand. Emma started walking towards the barn, and Leo called her back to the truck. The three of them went back to the map, Emma grabbed a pad and made some notes. Then she went back in the house, to get back on the phone, he supposed.

About thirty minutes later, trucks and trailers started pulling into the yard. Walt came in the sheriff's car, and Martha brought their truck and trailer with their horses. Mathias figured that his Uncle Robert would let him search no matter what Lucian had said, but he was wrong. He was shocked when he was told to help Lane finish all the chores and to be nice to the girls. Robert must have figured that he was fixing to blow up, because he said quietly, "Mathias, I need you to act like a man and not a spoiled little kid. Lucian thinks that Arlo Boulin shot Mrs. Ferguson. You know Rocket does look a lot like Voncett Redwing's brown pinto from a distance. And Voncett and Betty do favor each other a little. The Boulins and Redwings have been enemies for years, you know that. You know how it is since you lost your Dad. Well Ferg lost his girlfriend and he may lose his mother. Do the chores, do what Lane's Mom tells you, and behave yourself."

Mathias didn't like it, but he went and helped unload the rest of the horses off the trailer. He tightened Emma's cinch for her and held her horse for her to get on. Not that she needed the help, but there were horses and riders milling everywhere. She squeezed his shoulder for just a minute before she headed out with Robert.

Lane's Mom called Ferg into the house, they figured she wanted to talk to him without them underfoot. Mathias went to get the cow for Jeanne to milk, she was a hateful old witch and hard to lead. Lane was on one side of the barn forking hay down to the horses and Cady was on the other.

They finished all the chores, and shut the barn up for the night. Mathias clowned around and actually got both the girls to laugh. As they headed for the house, carrying the milk pail between them, Lane grabbed Mathias in a headlock.

"Thanks, little brother." He said quietly.

They'd only picked at the dinner that Lane's Mom had made, none of them had any appetite. The girls helped her clean up the kitchen and the boys spread sleeping bags out in the living room. Lane's Mom made them go to bed at 11:30. There was still no word from anyone.

Mathias figured that Ferg was probably going to cry, and he was going to give him the sleeping bag on the end closest to the door. But Cady pointed out where everyone was going to sleep. Lane, Jeanne, Ferg, herself, and Matty. Nobody argued with her. Everyone was silent for a long, long time, and then Ferg started crying. Cady and Jeanne both talked to him, and Mathias reached over and put a hand on Cady's arm in silent comfort. Finally Ferg cried himself to sleep. It was only a few seconds later when Mathias had heard Jeanne make a soft little sound of distress and knew his sister was crying. He felt, as much as heard, Lane move, and knew he was holding Jeanne. And then he realized that Cady was crying too. He took the back of his hand and brushed the tears from her face, and then he caught her hand and held it. All night long.

It was almost dawn when Emma stumbled into the house. She was so exhausted that she could hardly walk. They were all instantly out of their sleeping bags, and she had told Ferg that his Mom was alive, and they needed to get to the hospital.

"I always wondered if it would have made any difference if we'd all gone out looking as soon as we realized she was late." Cady whispered. "We might have found her before dark and gotten her to the hospital. And I know why Lucian did what he did, but -"

"It's not easy being a lawman."

Mathias finally went to sleep, but Cady didn't. She realized that he hadn't told her that he loved her, though she knew him well enough to know that he did. Walt had never said the words either. Was she going to spend the rest of her life with a man who was as reticent as her Dad?


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Hi, Dad." Cady said as she picked up her phone.

"Were you going to invite me to your wedding, punk?"

"He called you." _She should have known that that infernal sheriff from Montana would call Walt. She should have told Vic to tell him to just go along with what the guy said. She should have -_

"The only time your Mother ever yelled at me was when that man came to the ranch for a couple days to fish." Walt said.

"He was rude to Mathias, and I got mad, and I shouldn't have -" Cady stopped. _She was not having this conversation with Walt._

"So you're not getting married." Walt said, and he sounded _disappointed._

"We're getting married, Dad. We were going to try and get everybody together at Jeanne's tomorrow night so we could tell you."

"Your mama always thought a lot of Mathias. She said we were all selling him short. I reckon he's a lot like me, just needed the right woman to settle him down."

"Dad!" Cady said in shock.

"All I want is for you to be happy, punk."

"I love him." Cady said. "And so you don't get any more surprises, we're buying the Walker's house."

"Got everything planned out?"

"If I don't win this case, I may have to go back to waitressing."

"Linda's already thrilled with the social security money that you got her."

"I know that, Dad. But it wasn't enough."

"Well Lark will help you, and I know you'll do the best you can."

"Walter, I need you to sign these." Ruby said, as she came in his office with some letters. She sat them in front of him and pointed at the first one. "Walter? Walter?" She shook his arm. "Walt, are you alright?"

He grinned at her. "Cady and Mathias are getting married."

She looked at him in shock. "You're serious?"

"Yeah." He patted her hand that was still on his arm. "Clear your calendar for July 4th."

"Walt, Omar's on the phone!" Ruby called into his office awhile later.

But it was _Rose_ who was on the phone. "Walt, you take Ruby to the Doctor right now!" She said. He could hear Omar in the background saying, "Honey, I'm driving too fast already."

"Did she tell you she felt bad?" Walt asked, sliding his chair back.

"I think her blood pressure is messed up again. _Walt!_ Just please, take her to the Doctor! "

"Ruby, did you take your blood pressure medicine this morning?" Walt called into the other room.

"Yes. What's wrong?"

"Do you feel ok?"

"I'm fine." Ruby walked into his office.

"What did you say to Rose?" Walt asked, and then got a sinking feeling. "I think that was a secret, Ruby."

"Oh dear!" Ruby said, and looked horrified.

"It's true." Rose said, and then she mumbled something to Omar, and he heard Omar say, "What in the hell is going on? Honey, are you alright?"

"I think I screwed up again." Walt said. He pushed his phone to speaker so that Ruby could hear too. "They were going to tell everybody tomorrow. I had no idea that Ruby would say anything, but it's my fault, I didn't tell her it was a secret."

Rose was crying, and he had the sudden horrified thought that she _didn't_ want Mathias to marry Cady.

"Walt, I still don't know what's going on." Omar said. Then, "Honey, calm down."

Walt heard Rose say, "My idiot son has finally come to his senses and he is going to marry Cady." And then she started crying again.

"That's great!" Omar said, then, "I think?" Like he wasn't sure what he was supposed to say.

"Rose, I'm really sorry. I think I messed everything up." Ruby said.

"No, no, it's fine." She was still crying. She and Omar were evidently sharing the phone.

"Are we still going to town?" Omar's voice.

Walt couldn't hear what Rose said, but Omar said, "Hot damn! Talk to you later, Walt." And he disconnected.

Ruby started laughing and then Walt did too. He laughed until he had tears rolling down his face.

"What's wrong?" Vic demanded, when she walked into the office.

"I think we've caused enough commotion this morning." Ruby said, and she grinned at Walt and walked back to her desk.

"Walt?" Vic asked again, casting an anxious look in Ruby's direction.

Walt swiped at his face. "Ruby and I have been stirring up trouble."

 _He had no idea how much._

"Vic, close the door." Walt said. "SIT." He pointed at the chair in front of his desk. When she did, "How're your hands?"

"Ok." She said, figuring that he was actually going to fire her outright this time.

"You did good keeping your mouth shut." Walt said.

"What?" Vic asked, not understanding.

"About Parker. There was no need for him to drag you and Mathias down with him."

"Trooper Williams said he had so much meth in his system that he probably didn't even feel me hit him." At the look on Walt's face, "He lied to me, didn't he?"

"I didn't know he talked to you." Walt cleared his throat. "A secret's not a secret when three people know it."

"I just wish he hadn't run over Mathias. But Violet said she and Troop were having a snowball fight in the middle of the road, and he might have run over _them."_ She grinned at Walt. "I just don't _get_ the two of them. He's _crazy_ about her. And he's usually so gruff and mean."

"Yeah, well, I don't _get_ a lot of things." Walt said. "Why did you hit the Fed?"

"What?" All the color drained from Vic's face. She was going to kill Ferg.

"Answer me, Vic." Walt said patiently.

"He wouldn't let us go look for you!" She burst out. "Maybe we could have saved that poor FBI lady if we'd gotten there in the chopper in time! He - he wouldn't do _anything._ He just didn't care. I didn't know that Henry went after you, I would have gone with him! I thought you were dead!" She had tears pouring down her cheeks.

"If you want a career in law enforcement, you can't go around hitting Feds." Walt said. She didn't see that the hand he'd been bracing on in his chair was now clamped around the frame with a death grip. If he let himself get up, he knew he'd take her in his arms. She just needed to leave. Go somewhere far away where she would be out of Boulin's reach. Losing Vic because he sent her away would be painful, but survivable. He hadn't been able to keep Martha safe. If Vic died - the thought of it almost made him physically sick. If this mess with Boulin was ever over, _he could go after her._

Vic swiped at her eyes, embarrassed, and Walt continued, "Ferg didn't tell me, so don't jump all over him about it."

"Who?" Vic asked. Who else had known?

"This is a small town and everybody knows everything. You might want to remember that."

"Cady Longmire." Cady said as she answered her phone.

"Hi, Cady! This is Rain Matthews. Mathias's _not cousin_. I don't know if you remember me or not -" she kept on talking, but right then Cady realized why Mathias was _so_ adamant that he wouldn't have an _early_ baby. Rain was the illegitimate daughter of Rose and Robert's older brother Ray. He'd been killed in a tractor accident before he could marry Rain's Mom. Mathias's grandmother had been horrid to the two of them. Jeanne and Mathias had always called Rain their "not cousin" because that's how their grandmother referred to her. They hadn't realized until they'd gotten older how hurtful that was.

"I just wanted you to know how happy I am that you and Matty are getting married." Rain was still talking. "And if anybody on the Rez bothers you, you just let me know. You're welcome here anytime, Matty knows where I live. I've got two toddlers, so I don't get out very much. Just wait until you have a couple and you'll understand."

Cady wasn't sure what she said to Rain, but they ended the call on a good note. The tribal grapevine was running at full speed. Who had told Rain that she and Matty were getting married?

Mathias answered his cell phone the way he usually did when he was at work and annoyed. "Mathias."

"Hey, little brother." Lane said. "I just had to pull your sister off two women at the Dino Mart. It's all over the Rez that you're marrying Elise Littlefeather."

"WHAT?"

"Well, hell, I know it's not true, but Jeanne is fixing to kill you. I took all the car keys, and I turned the horses out, but don't be surprised if she shows up somehow. And you better hide, because she intends to hurt you, if she gets her hands on you. I haven't heard her cuss like that since that buckle bunny put her thong underwear in my war bag."

"We were going to tell you tomorrow -" Mathias started, then rubbed his forehead, which was suddenly pounding.

"Matt, I will not let you marry Elise Littlefeather. How could you be stupid enough to get _her_ pregnant? Hell, I'll just kick your ass myself." Lane was getting louder, which was a sure indication he was fixing to lose his temper, which he almost never did.

"I AM MARRYING CADY!" Mathias all but yelled into the phone. "And I have never touched that damn Elise, no matter what she says!"

He heard a crash in the front office, heard Harve cussing, and saw him frantically mopping up spilled coffee. Inez leaned around in her chair and looked at him, her mouth open, completely forgetting the phone she had in her hand.

Lane laughed, long, and loud. "That's the best news I've heard in awhile. I better go tackle your sister before she puts on her war paint. Good for you, Matt!" And he hung up.

The office phone rang. And rang. And rang. Inez was still sitting at her desk looking at Mathias in shock. Rick finally picked it up, and called into the office carefully, "Matt, for you!"

"Mathias." He said.

"You're my brother and I'm supposed to love you." Jeanne said. "But I swear you are the stupidest person on this planet. Lane took all my keys or I would already have bashed your head in. I thought you were finally going to grow up and act like you had some sense. I hoped you and Cady might -" she choked, and he could tell she was crying. "How could you do this?"

"I don't know what in the hell is goin' around the Rez, but I'm marrying _Cady._ " Mathias said, gritting his teeth. "If she'll still have me, after she hears that my own _family_ thought I would have anything to do with Elise Littlefeather."

"Oh, hell." He heard Lane say. "I thought I was going to get back in the house and get you settled down before you cussed him out. " He evidently took the phone from Jeanne, "Matt, we're _really_ happy for you both. And as soon as I get Jeanne calmed down, we'll both get on the phone and try and stop some of this nonsense. Or we may have to knock a few heads together, but we can do that too."

"Just let it run its course." Mathias said. He hung up the phone, looked at Inez, who was still frozen at her desk. "You want to yell at me too?"

He was totally unprepared when she dropped her phone, ran into his office, and hugged him so hard his chair nearly turned over. "Oh, _hell."_ Mathias said, when she started crying.

"Congratulations, boss." Harve said, from the door. "And you probably forgot, but you were one of the few people who were nice to Inez when she married Bill."

Mathias patted Inez on the back, glared at Rick who looked like he was going to burst out laughing any second, and said, "Can we get some work done today?"

Two hours later, they'd had to lock the outside door of the office to keep the hordes of women who showed up, out. Elise's sister Darla had tried to shove past Inez into Mathias's office, which ended up with her in the floor with Inez sitting on her. Mathias would have let that go, but Darla tried to punch Harve after that, so she was locked in a cell.

Mathias finally threw his hands up in disgust, took Harve's jacket and cowboy hat from the rack, and traded keys with him. He stuffed his hair up inside the hat, shrugged into the jacket, slouched down, and stuck his hands in the pockets, the way Harve did when he walked.

"I would never have believed it." Inez whispered, as Mathias got in Harve's truck and drove off. "How did he do that?"

"Matt's smart. Well, not about women." Harve said. When Inez glared at him. "He should have just eloped. That would have been easier."

As Vic got out of her truck in Cady's driveway, she saw a man pull up in a black truck. She didn't know who he was, and Calvin got out of his car to intercept him. She half ran in the house. "There's a strange man outside!" she called into the kitchen to Lucian.

Lark instantly grabbed Cady's arm and the two of them hustled into Cady's bedroom, and took positions against the wall. Lucian walked to the front window with his gun in his hand, eased the curtain back, and said, "Stand down. It's Mathias."

"That's not Mathias!" Vic said, then looked thru the curtain with Lucian again. She had never seen him without his hair down. He looked like an entirely different man.

"Yeah, it is. You did good though. All you girls did good." Lucian grinned at them, and opened the door. "Bad day, Matt?"

"You could say that." Mathias said.

"We'll give you and Cady some privacy." Lark said. She helped Cady back to the table. Vic went and got Mathias a non-alcoholic beer from the fridge, and then she went into the kitchen with Lark and Lucian. She watched as Mathias took off the hat and shook his hair out.

"I didn't know who he was." Vic said to Lucian.

"He kept it short when he worked for the Denver PD." Lark said. "He was miserable the whole time he was there." She grinned at Vic, "Don't you just want to run your fingers thru that hair?"

"God, NO!" Vic said, looking at her in horror, and then she realized Lark was teasing her.

"I don't know how it happened, but our wedding is all anybody on the Rez is talking about." Mathias said to Cady.

"I'm sorry, Matty. That sheriff from Montana called Dad and told him, and it just kind of mushroomed from there. Dad said if you were going to be mad, to be mad at him."

Mathias sat down at the table. "I'm not mad. I just had _no_ idea so many people were interested in my marital status." He reached in his pocket and pulled out a ring box and handed it to her. "I have something for you."

"It's beautiful! But I told you, you didn't have to buy me anything!"

"It was Emma's. She said that Robert made it for her from my great great grandfather's watch chain. They didn't have much money when they were first married."

Cady slid it on her finger. "It even fits!" She squeezed his hand, because he was too far away from her to kiss. "Rain called me this morning. We should go and see her sometime." When he didn't say anything. "Matty?"

"I called the bank this morning and got all the paperwork started for the house, but the Tribal Council called an emergency meeting tomorrow. I may be out of a job."

"Matty, they can't -" Cady looked at him in horror. "Will they _fire_ you because of me?"

"Half the people on the Rez think I'm marrying Elise Littlefeather."

Cady froze with her mouth open.

"That's the second time I've done that to somebody today." Mathias said. "I didn't know if Inez was going to have a stroke, or shoot me."

"Is she upset about us?" Cady whispered.

"She hugged me so hard she nearly knocked me down, and cried. And Harve reminded me that I was one of the few people who didn't call her a gold digger when she married Bill."

"Inez loves Bill!" Cady said hotly.

"I know that." Mathias said reasonably. "But she's what, twenty five years younger than him? And he's pretty well off. Some of the older ladies on the Rez thought they were going to land him for themselves."

They heard a cell phone ringing in the kitchen, and then Lucian talking to somebody. "Hey, Matt?" Lucian called into the room. "Leo said that once he and Bill explained to the Tribal Council that they had the _wrong bride_ , there was no problem at all. The meeting is cancelled."

"I don't understand." Vic whispered to Lark.

"We thought they were going to try and fire Mathias because he and Cady are getting married." Lark whispered back.

" They're getting married?" Vic asked. Then, "But the Tribal Council can't _do_ that!"

"Oh, they could." Lark said, and grinned at her. "But I would make sure it cost them one _hell_ of a lot of money."

"Everybody ready to eat?" Lucian called. He, Lark, and Vic started carrying the food in after Cady and Mathias had cleared the table of all the trial paperwork.

"Well, who's the most eligible bachelor in Absaroka County now that you and Luce are off the market?" Lark asked Mathias.

"Oh, no." Mathias said. "I was never -" he stopped and looked helpless.

"The title will probably go to Mark Arrow." Lucian said. "but I doubt the poor boy wants it."

Vic thought the title should go to _Walt_ , but knew she should keep her mouth shut.

" Half the women at the assisted living were going to kill me. Mrs. Morris hit me with her walker. She told me Lucian belonged to _her."_ Lark said.

Cady looked at Mathias, and the two of them grinned at each other, and then everybody started laughing.

"I never had anything to do with that woman." Lucian said. "She asked me to marry her half a dozen times."

" _Maybe I should just ask Walt to marry me."_ Vic thought. He would probably pass out.

"I had a phone call earlier today." Lark said. "Dow has bigger fish to fry in Denver, and he's handed the trial off to Kevin Morris."

"Oh, crap." Cady said.

"Honey, the only reason that Kevin has a job is that his Dad is a senior partner in the firm. He's a jerk, and he's not a very good lawyer." Lark said.

"But he has more trial experience than I do."

"He doesn't have more than Lark." Lucian said.

"Very few people do." Lark said, shooting him an indulgent look.  
"Cady, do you still have that blue dress with the flared skirt?" Lucian asked.

"I do." Cady said, wondering where this was going.

"I want you to wear it the first day of the trial."

"Lucian, I look like I'm sixteen when I wear that dress."

"Exactly." Lucian said, and a look passed between him and Mathias that she didn't understand.

"You sly old devil." Lark said, and grinned at Lucian.

"I believe in stacking the odds in our favor." Lucian said. "Do you have that locket and ear rings of your Mama's?"

"I think Dad does." Cady whispered, and her eyes came full of tears.

Mathias laid his hand over hers. "Lucian –"

Lark cut him off. "If we're going to win, we're going to have to fight dirtier than Dow's practice does." She looked at Cady, "So I guess Lucian and I need to pick out your clothes."

"You want me to look like a kid?"

"They want you to look young and inexperienced so that the jury will be on your side, and opposing council will underestimate you." Mathias said.

"Oh." Cady said, still looking shocked. "I can call Dad. Surely he didn't -" she looked appalled. "I don't know what he did with Mom's stuff." She dialed Walt while Lark, Mathias, and Vic cleared the table.

"Hi, Dad." She said. "Lark and Lucian are helping me get ready for the trial, and I wondered if you still had Mama's locket -" she choked.

Lucian took the phone from her hand and went in her bedroom and closed the door. He didn't want anyone else hearing if Walt started yelling. "Walt, I believe in stacking the odds." He said. "Kevin Morris is a little bastard, and we all know he's going to play dirty. But he's not as smart as _me_ , and he's sure as hell not in _Lark's_ league."

"You want some of Martha's clothes to give Cady confidence."

Lucian scratched his head. Amazingly, Walt was going to use his brain, and not lose his temper. "You still got that green dress of hers that made all the men's teeth fall out?"

"Yeah." Walt said, thru gritted teeth. "I know I need to -" he stopped. "I haven't disposed of any of her things."

Mathias turned on his flashing lights and pulled the truck over. He was sure that it had belonged to Branch Connally, and it now sported a temporary tag.

"License and registration, please." He said, as he approached the window.

"I'm sorry, Mathias, was I speeding?" Travis asked him.

"Where in the hell did you get this truck?" Mathias asked thru clenched teeth.

"Branch gave it to me." Travis looked at him in horror. "You think I _stole_ it? You think I would steal from a dead person? You've known me our whole lives, and I may have done some stupid shit, but I have never stole. I did just what Mrs. Connally said -" At the look on Mathias's face, "Lucian married his lady. The lawyer. I took the paperwork and did just what she told me, I _thought._ If I screwed something up, it's my fault."

"What are you doin' on the Rez?"

"Going to help Lane load a bull."

"Pete Towles helps Lane."

"Pete broke his foot last night, and Jeanne had to take Caitlin to the Doctor this morning. They think she's going to have to have her tonsils out."

"Just keep digging a deeper hole." Mathias thought to himself. To Travis, he said, "Don't make me chase you." He went back to his SUV, told Inez to run the tag, and while he was waiting on that, he called Lane.

"Hey little brother." Lane said cheerfully. "Please don't tell me you locked Travis up. I got to get this bull to Colorado before the weather turns bad again."

"He's really helping you?"

"Pete broke his foot last night steer wrestling."

"Lane, it snowed last night!"

"They have jackpots at the arena on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"What arena?" Mathias asked, wondering how he could be so far out of the loop. Then he heard Inez on the radio. "I'll be damned." He said.

"Matt, are you talking to me, or Inez?" Lane asked.

"Thanks, Inez." Mathias said, and signed off. To Lane, he said, "Both. Travis is on his way. I give him 'til the weekend before he wrecks the truck."

"Travis is not a bad guy." Lane said. "He's always done stupid things, but he's great with livestock. The kids love him. You couldn't ask for a better friend if you need some help. I don't think he's ever gotten over Beeker gettin' killed."

"Shit."

"What's wrong Matt?"

"Call me back once you get on the road. I need to ask you some things." Mathias walked back to the truck, and handed Travis his driver's license and registration. "Sorry I bothered you." He said.

"You really thought I stole this truck." Travis said. He looked like he was going to cry.

"I'm sorry, Travis. Sometimes doing my job isn't exactly pleasant." Mathias said, and headed back to his SUV.

Lane called him about an hour later. "Ok, little brother, I'm on the road. What's on your mind?"

"Trouble with the bull?"

"I helped Travis get started on Pete's chores. That's a lot to dump on him and Jeanne, but I got to get this bull delivered."

"Is Caitlin ok?"

"She's gotta have her tonsils out. Jeanne's gonna leave the kids at Mom's until I get back so she doesn't have to look after them too. Millicent will help out when she gets home from school, and Charlie does what he can."

"You really trust Travis to help you?"

"Travis is good with livestock, I already told you. He's just like Tommy, he requires some supervision, but if you give him a list of stuff to do, he'll get it all done."

"Did Cady see Beeker get killed?" Mathias asked, gritting his teeth.

"You didn't know, did you?"

"She told me that she broke up with him, but -" Mathias stopped.

"She wasn't even there that weekend. And Jeanne quit watching anybody after I got hurt. You know she'd hang out back of the chutes with the guys, but she never watched anybody ride." Lane sighed. "Beeker was next man after me. I knew something was wrong from the way the crowd reacted."

"You still -" Mathias stopped. Of course he did. Bull riders were superstitious. Some of them wouldn't even ride if anything was the least bit off. Lane had _always_ kissed Jeanne. Last thing before he got on a bull, and first thing when he got off.

" He fell. And the bull landed on him with both hind feet." Lane sighed. "It was just a freak thing. I don't think Travis has ever gotten over it. He was going to marry his girlfriend, but he broke up with her right after that. Beeker was his best buddy. They covered a lot of miles together. "

Henry sat down at a table at the Busy Bee and was surprised when Jess brought him a cup of coffee. "I'm so sorry." He said. "I should have realized how it would impact you when I left." Malachi hadn't been able to keep the Pony open an entire week.

"It's ok." She hugged him. "Good waitresses can get a job any time."It was true, she could have gotten a job at the casino, but she wouldn't work there. Vivien Leigh had headed to the ski resort area and had no problem finding work.

He hadn't had a day off in two weeks, and he'd called Emma and asked her if she had time to meet him for lunch. They'd spoken on the phone several times, but he hadn't seen her. He'd cashed his check, and after he paid his truck insurance, filled the gas tank, and gotten his boots from the repair shop, he had just enough to pay for their lunch. He cussed Deana and his stupidity every day.

An attractive woman about his age came in, and stopped and asked Jess something. Henry was surprised when she approached his table.

"Mr. Standing Bear?"

Henry stood up. "Yes, ma'am. I'm Henry Standing Bear."

"I'm Sharon Bradley. I'm a federal prosecutor. Could I have a few minutes of your time?"

"Of course." Henry said, gesturing for her to sit down.

Emma froze as she opened the restaurant door. Henry was seated with a _very_ attractive lady. She'd been working all morning. She should have taken the time to grab a shower and put on some clean clothes. She wasn't used to this dating business. Were she and Henry even dating? She and Omar had just fallen in together because they needed each other. And Robert - There was no explaining Robert. She had always scoffed at love at first sight until it happened to her. What she and Robert had had, had been wonderful, but he was dead, and he would want her to be happy now. _Henry was going to break up with her!_

She started to back out the door, but Jess saw her, and realized that Emma had completely misread the situation. "Emma!" she yelled, and waved.

"Good to see you." Emma said, now left with no choice but to come in. She hugged Jess warmly.

"Excuse me." Henry said to the lady that he was sitting with. He grabbed Emma and hugged her hard, the second she turned loose of Jess. He didn't _think_ the Bradley woman was going to try and take him back to jail, but he wasn't missing out on what might be the last opportunity he ever had to hold Emma.

"Henry?" Emma asked, shocked. What he had done would be all over the Rez in two hours.

"Emma, this is Sharon Bradley, a Federal prosecutor." Henry said, as he led her to the table with his hand around her arm.

" _Mrs._ Bradley." Sharon said, and smiled at Emma.

At the exact same time, Emma said, "You _are not_ taking him back to jail!"

Henry pushed her in the booth in front of him, and said, "Behave!"

When she would have protested, he clamped his fingers around her thigh, and she looked at him in shock.

"Cady told me that you were a little protective of Henry." Sharon said, and smiled again. "I've been having some very interesting conversations with Jacob Nighthorse."

"Oh?" Henry asked.

"About how Malachi Strand was using your bar to launder the money he embezzled from the casino. And Darius Burns left me his little black book. Which has been a quite interesting read. Evidently, he didn't trust Malachi at all." She reached in her purse and handed Henry a folded, official looking paper.

"This is the deed to the Red Pony." Henry said, looking confused.

"It's very rare, but I do have some days when I really enjoy my job." She handed him a ring of keys as well.

"That's great!" Emma said, but as she looked at Henry, she realized that he didn't seem very happy at all. Maybe he was in shock.

"Thank you, Mrs. Bradley." Henry finally said. "Can I buy you a cup of coffee?"

"I have to get back to work, but thank _you._ " She smiled at both of them.

"I'm sorry." Emma said to her.

"I actually found it rather refreshing that you were going to punch me because you thought I was going to put your man back in jail." Sharon said, and winked at her.

Jess sat Emma's hot chocolate down in front of her. "Are y'all ok? Do you want some lunch?"

"How about a cheeseburger, Emma?" Henry asked, and smiled at her. _He should have been ecstatic about getting the bar back. He didn't even care. When he had thought he was getting sent back to jail, all he had wanted to do was grab Emma and hang onto her._

"Sounds great." Emma said, and smiled at Jess.

"Make it two, then." Henry said. When Jess went to get their order, he said, "They do still buy their beef from you, right?"

"Yeah." Emma said. "Are you ok?"

"Just a little confused."

"I can help you clean up if Malachi left a mess."

Henry shook his head. "I'm not even going to worry about it right now."

They ate their lunch, and Emma shared a few funny stories from the ranch, but she realized Henry's mind was elsewhere.

"Isn't it great about Mathias and Cady?" she asked.

"What?"

" Mathias finally found the guts to admit that he's loved her all along. You will come to the wedding, won't you?" She looked at him worriedly. "I know you're not exactly Matty's biggest fan." Then, "You _didn't_ know?"

"I'm not exactly in the loop anymore." He tried to smile at her. It seemed that everyone except _him_ could get their life in order. He loved Emma. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. But even though he had the bar back, he still had no money to reopen it. And he wouldn't quit and leave the Rogers in a mess when they'd been kind enough to give him a job and a place to live when he needed it.

"Henry, are you alright?" Emma asked him again when he walked her to her truck. He took her arm and helped her in the cab. _No one_ other than Robert had ever done that. She had the feeling that he just wanted to touch her. It would be awhile before they got to see each other again. When winter set in for good, they would both be working their butts off on their respective ranches, and sometimes the internet and phone lines stayed down for days. She wanted to kiss him, but she was afraid that that might be too much in what had already been a stressful day for him, so she just put her hand on his face. "Take care of yourself." She said gently.

Henry stood in the parking lot for a few minutes after she had driven off. Then he went to the Red Pony to see how much damage there was. He did not need any more complications in his life right now, and the bar was like an albatross around his neck.

"Do I look alright?" Cady asked Vic nervously, the morning of the first day of the trial.

"You look fine." Vic told her. "Knock 'em dead." The blue dress didn't make Cady look like she was sixteen. Vic thought it made her look all of _twelve._ And she was so nervous that she was almost shaking. Vic had made her a cup of tea, but she had only drank a few sips of it.

When the Connally's arrived, Lark immediately started going over Cady's opening statement with her. Lucian drove them to the courthouse, and Calvin followed in his truck. Everyone had intended to show up to support Cady on the first day of the trial, but she had asked them not to.

Several days later, Vic looked at Omar in dismay. She'd finally managed to get over to his place for a shooting lesson. "Walt doesn't have any synthetic guns."

"If I make you go old school, you won't be able to walk tomorrow." Omar said, and grinned at her.

"Omar, don't you be mean to Vic." Rose said. "She's not one of your idiot customers. You can't have any pie if you're bad."

"What do I get if I'm good?" Omar asked her, eyes twinkling.

"Do you really want me to embarrass you in front of Vic?"

Omar turned beet red. "No ma'am." He said. "Come on, Vic." He gestured which rifle for her to take, and she followed him down to the range. She was surprised when he walked past the shooting station and headed up the hill.

"Where are we going?" Vic asked. Maybe he thought she was going to shoot so badly he was taking her where they wouldn't have an audience.

"Rose told me to train you." Omar said, and broke into a jog. "And I do what I'm told."

Vic did not want to run with the rifle, which in spite of being synthetic, was getting heavier by the minute. "I just want to shoot." She said.

Omar shook his head, and increased his pace.

"Are you trying to kill me?" Vic wheezed.

"DOWN!" Omar said, pointing to some fallen logs.

"SHIT!" Vic said, scrambling to cover. Had they stumbled on another damn bear? She looked, and looked, and didn't see anything, but she kept quiet.

"Good." Omar said. "Trust your partner. It could keep you alive." Not missing a beat, "Shoot that white ring on the tree." He pointed. When she started to get up, "No, where you are."

"Omar!" She protested.

"You think the bad guys are going to let you get in position to shoot? You shoot where you are."

"But Omar, I don't -"

Omar rolled halfway on his back, raised the rifle, and fired. His shot bulls eyed the white ring.

Vic looked at him in shock. "I'll never be able to do that." She whispered.

"Shoot, Vic. Now!"

She shot. She hit the outer edge of the white ring, and was amazed. She'd been afraid that she'd missed the entire tree.

"Decent." Omar said. "You at least winged the man and made him take cover. RUN!" he gestured her in front of him.

Vic ran. She thought they ran a quarter of a mile before Omar said, "Duck behind those big rocks, but watch for snakes. They'll be out sunning themselves today."

Vic did as she was told. She couldn't get her breath, and Omar was barely winded. She wanted to just sit down and cry, but she was frantically checking the ground for snakes.

"Decent." Omar said again. He pointed farther up the hill, and Vic nearly groaned out loud. "There's a man up there and he's got you pinned down. What are you going to do?"

"Pray for backup?" Vic offered.

"Your partners shot and bleeding to death."

Still struggling for breath, Vic eased around Omar, and looked at the jumble of rocks. "I could try and work my way thru that?"

"Didn't work."

"Oh, _shit!_ That really happened to you!" Vic looked at Omar in dismay.

"Yep." Omar let out a long sigh. Then, "Do you know Coop?" When Vic shook her head, "He's an older guy who works on Emma's ranch. If he hadn't been out hunting strays that day, Walt and I would both be dead."

" _Walt_ got shot?"

" _I_ did." Omar said. Then, "I think you've had enough for one day." He gestured her down the hill.

As she drove home, Vic realized that she had shot _once._ But Omar had given her an entirely new perspective on things.

Cady's trial had not gone well at all. She was frightened and inexperienced, and Kevin Morris was a bully and took advantage of the fact that she was afraid of him

"Walter, where are you going?" Ruby demanded.

"I'm going to go listen to Cady close."

"She asked us not to come." Ruby reminded. "She's scared to death."

"I'm just going to stay out in the hall where I can hear her." Walt said. "And Lucian said that she'd already lost, but she gave it her best shot, and I'm still proud of her."

Ruby gave him a worried look. "Don't upset her."

As Walt walked thru the parking lot, he noticed Vic in her truck, and then he realized that she was slumped over the steering wheel crying. "Hey!" He tapped on the glass, and she jumped. "What's wrong?" he asked as he opened the door.

"It's not fair." Vic said, choking on a sob. "It's not fair. Cady's going to lose and she tried so hard. The insurance company needs to give that money to poor Charlie. Kevin Morris is an asshole. I'm so tired of the bad guys winning, Walt." She choked again, and swiped at her eyes, and Walt just folded her in his arms without thinking about it.

"It's ok." He said, and brushed his lips against her hair. "Come on, let's go stand out in the hall and listen." He wiped the tears from her face gently, and she was so upset, she didn't even realize what he'd done.

The courthouse was old, and the floors were marble. Slick marble. As Cady hobbled on her crutches over to the juror's box, her feet shot out from under her, and she fell. HARD. She felt her wrist snap as she came down on it, and her eyes filled with tears.

"Cady!" Lark was instantly by her side.

"Miss Longmire!" Judge Mayhew himself stood up. "Are you alright? He gestured the bailiff forward. "Mrs. Connally can close for you."

"I ob –" Kevin Morris started.

"Shut up, and act like a human being." Judge Mayhew growled.

"I'll finish." Cady said, and when Lark bent over her on the floor, she shook her head. This was _her_ trial, and she was the one who had screwed it up. And she was going to close the way she wanted to. " I did something stupid." She said. "I did something stupid with a horse and I hurt him and myself. But luckily, we'll both be alright in a couple months. All Charlie ever wanted to be was a bull rider. Rough stock riders get hurt. Sometimes they get crippled or killed. But Charlie had that choice taken from him, and I don't think that's right."

"Walt –" Vic started, as he pushed the door courtroom door open. He just reached back and caught her arm and pulled her inside with him.

"You done, Punk?" he asked Cady gently, and when she nodded, he picked her up and carried her outside. He sat her on a bench in the hall, Lark, Lucian, and Vic right behind.

"I'll get the first aid kit." Vic said.

"Ice." Lucian said, and followed her.

"It's broke, Punk." Walt said as he carefully felt Cady's wrist. Hell, he was afraid her hand was broken as well. _Martha had had cancer! Was there something wrong with his daughter as well? She was a healthy young woman. She shouldn't be snapping bones like this._

"I'm sorry." Cady said.

"Hell, you fell down." Walt said, not realizing that she was talking to Lark.

"You did right." Lark said.

"Nicely played, counselor." Kevin Morris said, smirking.

"Go to hell, you little bastard." Lark shot back at him. "If my husband was here, you wouldn't open your mouth."

"Do you want me to shoot him, honey?" Lucian asked from behind Kevin.

Kevin shot an alarmed glance at Lucian, realized that the man was old as hell, didn't give a shit, and probably did have a gun in his pocket, and backed off in a hurry.

"Dad." Cady said, putting her good hand on his arm. "It's ok."

Lucian handed Walt the first aid kit. "There's a splint in here. Vic ran down to the Busy Bee to get some ice. The traffic's so bad we'll never get a car out."

"I'll go get you a Coke." Lark said, squeezing Cady's shoulder.

"I'll get -" Lucian started.

"Sit down." Lark said, and caught his face in her hands and kissed him. She said something in his ear that made him grin. He sat down next to Cady, and took her uninjured hand in his.

"Lucian?" Walt asked, as he stabilized Cady's hand.

"She told me I'd already made Morris mess his pants and not to shoot him before she got back." That made Cady grin thru her tears.

Lark appeared with an armful of Cokes only a few seconds before Vic got back with the ice. "Sorry!" she panted. "Cady, can I get you anything else?" she looked at her worriedly.

"I'm ok." Cady said, as Walt carefully taped the ice bag over the improvised splint. "I'm sorry I'm so much trouble."

"Ma'am?" the Bailiff said to Cady. "The juries in. Judge Mayhew said for you to just go on to the emergency room."

 _He was trying to spare her the humiliation of her loss._ Cady choked on her tears. Walt picked her up, and Vic ran to get the truck. Lark and Lucian went back in the courtroom.

"I screwed up." Cady said as they started for the hospital.

"You did the best you could, Punk."

Lark burst into the ER. "Cady! You won!" She cried.

Cady was sandwiched in a chair in the waiting room between Vic and Walt, and she started crying all over again.

Several days later, Vic answered her cell phone. "Moretti."

"Hey, Vic. Is Walt around?" Omar asked.

"I just finished a call, and Ruby told me to go on home. I'm not sure where he is."

"Dammit." Omar said, then, "Look, I hate to ask you this, but Rose and I have already headed upcountry. That worthless kid I hired to look after the livestock just texted me that he was going skiing. It's too far for me to come back. Can you get somebody to go with you to throw some hay to the horses?"

"Sure. Do I need to do anything else?"

"Just stick your hand in the waterer and make sure it's refilling. It won't freeze. As long as they've got hay and water, they'll be fine."

"Ok. Enjoy your hunt."

"With these characters?" Omar chuckled. "Take care of yourself, Vic."

Vic turned the truck around. She didn't need anybody to go with her out to Omar's. Truthfully, she was beginning to think that Walt was just paranoid. Boulin wasn't going to risk doing anything that would get him sent back to prison. There was no way that they could prove that he'd attacked that woman on the Rez, if he even had. He'd gotten drunk and run his mouth off at the casino one night. So what? A lot of people acted stupid when they were drinking. It didn't mean anything.

It was snowing like crazy by the time she got the livestock fed and got back on the road. She wondered what it was doing upcountry where Omar and Rose were camping. Cady had spent the day with Mathias's family, and they'd invited Vic for dinner, but she'd begged off, saying she didn't know when she'd be off work. Truthfully, she just felt like a spare wheel. She enjoyed Jeanne and Lane, and she was glad to see that Emma and Henry seemed to have their relationship back on track.

She'd started halfheartedly looking for another job. The one that had struck her as the most promising was almost on the California/Oregon line, on the beach. She could learn to surf. She could send Walt a photo of her in a string bikini with some surfer dude, and caption it, "Eat your heart out." She laughed out loud. Then the laugh turned into a sob. She swiped at her eyes angrily, and the truck windshield exploded.

The pain was so bad that she thought she screamed, but she couldn't get her breath, so she didn't know how she could of. She looked at the blood pouring out of her chest and lost control of the truck. She veered off in the ditch and cracked her head on the dash as the truck turned on its side. The last thing she heard was somebody laughing.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"This sure beats raw liver." Lane said, as he polished off his t-bone.

When Henry raised a questioning eyebrow at Emma, she said, " Once upon a time, these _children,"_ looking at Lane and Mathias affectionately, "decided that they were big Warriors. They camped out at Lane's in the tipi, and ate raw rabbit liver."

"And got deathly sick." Lane grinned at Mathias's discomfort.

"And spent most of the weekend at the Rez clinic." Jeanne said.

"That's the weekend that -" Cady slammed her mouth shut and looked horrified.

Emma grinned at Henry. "That's the weekend that the Littlefeather girls said they partied with the boys."

"And Lane's Mom broke Shasta's nose." Henry said.

"Wait a minute! What?" Lane looked at Henry in shock.

Emma laughed out loud. "You children don't know _everything._ You just think you do."

"Lane's Mom didn't really break Mrs. Littlefeather's nose-" Jeanne stopped, looked back and forth from Emma to Henry. "She _did_."

"But _why?"_ Lane asked.

"Don't mess with Mama Bear." Mathias said.

"Huh?" Lane looked at him quizzically.

"Shasta made the mistake of saying something rude and untrue about you." Emma said gently.

Henry grinned at Lane. "I believe it cost your Dad couple hundred bucks. He said it was money well spent."

When Lane still looked confused, Mathias said, "Shasta pressed charges. Your Dad paid off Malachi."

"You never told me." Lane said accusingly.

Mathias just shrugged.

"How about dessert?" Jeanne said quickly, hopping up.

"No fighting at the table, boys." Emma said to Lane and Mathias, as she picked up their plates.

"I've got this, Henry." Lane said, as Henry stood up to help clearing the table. "You cooked. And _man,_ I think that was the best steak I've ever had!"

"I'm sorry." Cady said, "I feel so useless." She looked in dismay at her two casts. The broken ankle had been bad enough. The broken wrist made doing anything almost impossible. Henry had cut her steak for her.

"Watch Mathias!" Emma called from the kitchen. "I'm sure he's up to _something."_

Cady looked at him, and she couldn't help it, she started laughing. Mathias shook his head, and then he grinned at her.

"She's got your number." Cady whispered to him.

Mathias put his hand over hers. "You didn't do too much today, did you?"

"I've had people waiting on me all day. All I did was ride around in the jeep." She beamed at him. "I've had a really great day!" Then, "Are your ribs ok?"

"I'm fine." He and Cady had gone to Jeanne's in the late afternoon. Emma and Henry had joined them, and Emma had run her dogs, with Lane as "it". Jeanne had driven Cady to a vantage point high on the ranch where they could watch everything, and Henry had stayed behind and cooked. Emma had protested, but he'd told her he wanted to play with Lane's new gas grill.

Mathias had followed along behind Emma and the dogs with horses for her and Lane. He worried that she did too much, but he didn't know how to tell her to slow down.

"Ice cream?" Emma asked, as she and Jeanne handed out peach pie to everybody. Lane had two scoops on his, everybody else declined. After dinner, they all sat around and talked.

Mathias and Cady left a few minutes before Emma and Henry. Emma's dog Bullet was having such a good time playing with Caitlin's puppy in the fenced yard, that he didn't listen to her and want to be caught. Her older dog, K-9, named by Charlie, of course, was too dignified to play.

"Emma was thrilled that I'm wearing her ring." Cady said. "I thought she was going to cry. You have no idea how much she loves you, do you?"

Mathias just shot her a sideways glance, and they rode in silence for a few minutes. "I hope you like the bed I bought." he said suddenly. They were going to spend their first night together in their new, old house. Cady hadn't been there since Lane had helped him move his stuff in.

"What?" Cady asked, surprised.

"Well Lane said it just worked out better if you let the women chose the furniture. I got a new bed. I didn't want -" Mathias stopped, seemed to be at a loss for words, and Cady thought he was blushing.

"I'm sure it's nice." Cady said. "What size did you get?"

"King." Mathias said. He didn't tell her that Lane had told him to just go ahead and buy the bigger bed, because in a few years when all the kids and dogs piled in when it was storming, it got pretty crowded.

"Henry, it's snowing bad. You're welcome to stay at the ranch." Emma said. She wasn't sure how he was going to interpret that. She wasn't exactly sure what she meant herself. She just didn't want him trying to drive in this storm. The snow was coming down hard, and even though Mathias had left earlier, they could now see his taillights ahead of them.

" _Go Emma!"_ Henry thought to himself, but he glanced at her and smiled. "Thank you." She turned beet red, and he almost laughed.

"Matty!" Cady exclaimed, but Mathias had seen Vic's truck in the ditch the same time he had.

"GET DOWN!" Mathias all but yelled at her, and she ducked down in the seat with her head almost on his lap.

"Shit!" he said, as he saw all the blood on the ground and the shattered windshield. Vic was not in the truck.

He hit the light bar on the SUV and shoved it in reverse.

"Matty, what are you doing?" Cady protested. "You have to help Vic!"

"What the hell?" Emma exclaimed, as they saw the flashing lights, and Vic's truck in the ditch. She put Bullet off her lap, and in the floor, and pulled a revolver from her pocket. Mathias was out of his vehicle the second they pulled alongside. Henry helped him pick up Cady and get her in the passenger side of Emma's jeep. The footing was really bad and the snow had almost turned into a white out. Emma stood watch, gun ready.

"Lockdown." Mathias said. "Get Cady back to Jeanne's. Henry and I will try and find Vic."

Cady figured that it must be a code, because Emma went completely white, before she said, "Henry!" and handed him her revolver and a box of ammo from her pocket. "I'll come back to help as soon as I get Cady settled."

Henry took K-9's leash, and jumped in the SUV with Mathias.

"Call Jeanne. Tell her LOCKDOWN. This is not a drill." Emma told Cady, handing her her phone, before she carefully turned the jeep around.

Cady repeated what Emma had told her to Jeanne.

"Tell Lane I need some 9, some .45, and my blue sled. And we'll be there in less than 10 minutes." Emma said.

"Anything else?" Cady asked.

"Tell Jeanne you're starting the tree. To get moving."

"Ok." Cady said, and disconnected.

"Call Sue and just say Lockdown, and that Jeanne and Lane are on their way with you. Tell her you'll take the first five on the phone tree, and for Sissy to start from there. The way this snow's coming down, I don't know how much longer you'll have cell service."

Cady found Sue's number and did as she was told. "Emma, who am I supposed to call?"

"Leo, Violet, you can skip Rose since she's upcountry with Omar, Mrs. Allred, and Kel."

"OK." Cady said. Leo was at Mrs. A's, so she only had to make 3 calls. Violet's phone went to voice mail, so she left a message.

Jeanne and Lane were frantically loading her Suburban. Even though they were both running, Cady realized it was organized chaos. Lane carried her to the car and made her lie down in the back seat. The cat and puppy were both crated in the cargo area.

"I've gotta get the calf." Lane said. He was bottle feeding a twin that had been rejected by its mother. He handed Emma two boxes of ammo that she thrust into her pockets, and helped her load her blue sled in the back of her jeep. Then he grabbed her and hugged her and took off for the barn.

"Emma, be careful!" Jeanne called. Emma headed back to help Henry, and Jeanne drove to the barn, where Lane slid a Longhorn calf with his hind end enclosed in a gunny sack into the floorboards.

"Hang on, little guy. This'll be fun." He said, and winked at Cady. He knew she was terrified, and he was still trying to make a game of it.

There was a truck coming out of the Townes driveway, and Jeanne beeped the horn. They pulled alongside Travis, and Lane rolled his window down. "There's trouble. Somebody, probably Boulin, shot Vic. We're headed to Emma's. Can you tell the neighbors?"

"Sure." Travis said. "Be careful."

"Were you going to tell me?" Jeanne asked, as she drove. Cady had silent tears leaking down her face. She hadn't told Mathias _anything._ Again. When this was all over, she was going to have a long talk with him. And she was going to point blank _ask_ him, if it was ok to tell him that she loved him, or if it was so new that it would be distracting. They still had a lot of things to work out.

Lane shifted the rifle he held between his knees. "She wasn't in the truck. So she either crawled off or whoever shot her, took her. Emma and Henry are going to track. Mathias is -" he stopped.

"Going to kill Boulin." Cady finished for him, and she saw Jeanne glance in the mirror at her.

"This will be just between us." Lane said. "I'm telling Wally about Vic, but nothing else. The kids at the ranch don't need to know what happened yet."

"Call your Mom." Jeanne said to Lane. "I don't know if they're on the phone tree. With this snow -" she looked at him, confused.

Lane dialed his phone, spoke to someone, and then listened for several minutes. "Ten four." He said, and ended the call. "Let's go to the folks. Dad's been watching the weather, and he said we'd never make it to Emma's."

"Ok." Jeanne said. "I was worried about the kids anyway."

"I know." Lane said, reached and squeezed her knee. He called Sue quickly and told her about the change of plans.

"Who -" Cady started. "Did Emma?" She stopped, confused. She wasn't exactly sure what she was trying to ask.

"Leo set the phone tree up years ago. After Ferg's Mom got hurt. We have code words we use so that we know what's going on."

"But you could just use Facebook." Cady said.

"Sometimes we don't want what we're doing out on social media." Jeanne said. "And some of the people on the tree don't have the internet."

"And the power's probably out by now." Cady said almost to herself.

"We'll be fine, Cady." Lane said, shooting a glance back at her. "I'll lay down the law to the kids about climbing on you. We've got plenty of food and ammo at Mom's if it comes to that."

"I wonder what Mom's gonna say about the calf." Jeanne said, and grinned at Cady in the mirror. It would certainly not be the first time a calf had been in the kitchen.

"Put this on." Mathias said to Henry, throwing him a vest. Almost to himself, "I'm sorry I don't have one for the damn dog."

Henry buckled the vest on, and when Mathias handed him another one, he sat it at the rear of Vic's truck, against a tire where Emma would see it. Whether she would actually put it on, was another matter.

"Take care of Emma." Mathias said, looked at Henry, "And Cady, if I don't make it back."

"What are you going to do?" Henry demanded.

"Kill Boulin." Mathias said grimly. "Try and find Vic's body for Walt. If the snow gets too bad, you and Emma get to some shelter."

"We will find Vic and get her to the hospital."

"Vic's dead." Mathias said, his face carefully blank. When Henry would have protested, "That amount of blood on the ground, she's dead. I didn't say it in front of the women."

Henry found Vic's scarf in the truck, and held it in front of K-9's nose. "Track." He said. He wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to help the dog find the scent. He just knew that once he did, it would take all he had to keep up with him. Henry took the dogs head in his hands and looked in his eyes. "Please be quiet. I do not know how to tell you not to bark." K-9 wagged his tail, licked Henry's wrist, and put his nose to the ground.

Mathias called the Absaroka County Sheriff's Office on his cell phone. "Ferg, this is Mathias." He said. "I didn't want this going out over the radio. Vic's been shot."

"Shit! WHAT?" Ferg flipped the phone to speaker, gestured frantically to Walt, who was putting on his coat to leave.

"Her truck's in the ditch. She either crawled off in the woods or somebody took her. Henry and Emma are tracking her." He gave Ferg the coordinates off his phone. "I'm going after the shooter."

"Boulin?" Walt asked grimly.

"That's what I think." Mathias said, and disconnected.

Emma tied Bullet's leash to her belt. It was a struggle to get the bullet proof vest on, but she did it. She figured that Boulin would go for wounding them and slowing them down instead of killing them outright. She slid the harness straps of the sled over her shoulders, and started pulling. Bullet dragged her down K-9 and Henry's path. She tried to slow him down, then gave up. She wasn't as young as she used to be. But she didn't know how long Vic had been out here, and that amount of blood -

Henry was bent over, panting. "I do not know how you do this, Emma." He wheezed.

She and Bullet shot past him. "I'm sorry, Henry, I can't stop him."

K-9 jerked his lead from Henry's hands, and ran past her and Bullet, which made the little dog pull harder. Emma's feet shot out from under her and she slid on her stomach, the sled banging on top of her legs. Henry caught up and grabbed the sled and jerked Bullet to a halt. He untangled Emma from the harness and helped her up.

K-9 was digging frantically at a pile of deadfall, and Emma hoped he hadn't found a rabbit. Bullet whined and pulled at his lead, but stopped when Emma told him no. She joined K-9 in his digging, and Henry waited, keeping watch with his hand on the gun Emma had given him.

"She's here, Henry! She's here!" Emma said.

Henry joined them, digging alongside Emma. K-9 was throwing snow and mud everywhere. When he dug Vic's boot out, he grabbed it and started tugging.

"No, K-9! Wait!" Emma said, pulling him back and kissing him. "GOOD DOG!"

Henry carefully pulled Vic from her hidey-hole.

"Vic! Vic! Can you hear me? Wake up!" Emma patted her cheek frantically. Bullet joined in, washing Vic's face and whining, and Vic groaned.

"Fluffeeeeee - nooooo -"

"Where are you shot, Vic?" Emma started frantically patting her. Her dark coat and jeans had so many stains, it was impossible to tell. And it was so cold outside, she dared not peel Vic out of her clothing.

"Chest. Came thru the windshield." Vic choked out.

Henry unzipped her coat, and when she tried to protest, he said, "Emma will look. We need to know how bad you are hurt."

Emma looked in horror at Vic's blood soaked shirt. "Ok, honey, just a little boo boo." Vic had her eyes closed and Emma shot Henry a look of silent appeal. She wanted to start screaming. Henry squeezed her hand when he handed her a wad of gauze, and she carefully packed it into Vic's wound.

They bundled Vic into the sled and Bullet snuggled right in on top of her. When Emma would have made him get out, Henry shook his head. "He will help keep her warm. He does not weigh that much. You and K-9 break trail for me."

"Shit." Emma said. Their tracks were completely covered. "Henry, I don't -" Then she leaned down and petted K-9. "Jeep." She said. "Let's go home!"

K-9 wagged his tail and took off running. Emma had to pull him back to her side. Twice the sled got stuck and she had to go back and push while Henry pulled. By the time they got to the jeep, she and Henry were both soaking wet, and she was freezing. They slid the sled in the back, and Emma settled in next to Vic. Henry and K-9 got in the front.

"Henry?" Vic stirred.

"I am here, Vic." Henry reached back and touched her gently. "Everything will be ok." He caught Emma's eyes in the mirror and cursed silently. Vic was going to bleed to death before they could get to the hospital. The roads were terrible, it was snowing like a bitch, and it was all he could do to keep the jeep in the road with the gale force winds.

"Henry?"

" Vic, I have to have both hands to drive. Talk to Emma. Get her to tell you how she met Robert."

Vic mumbled something that he didn't catch, and Emma said, "She wants to know about the girl from Prudhoe Bay."

Vic said something else, and the only word he caught was "picture."

"That beautiful woman in the photo behind the bar was your girlfriend!" Emma exclaimed. "I didn't know that!"

Vic mumbled something.

"Oh, ok, Walt told her one night when you called her to come and drive him home."

Henry nearly gritted his teeth. He'd bought the photograph from a high end art gallery back when he really couldn't afford it. He'd just seen it in their window, and decided he had to have it. How much had Walt had to drink when he'd made up that story for Vic?

 _Well, they needed to keep Vic as alert as possible_. If she found his love life fascinating - And he would have told Emma, eventually.

"Not much to tell. She was an engineer for the oil company. She was Aleut. I dated her for five years while Walt and I worked the oil fields. I asked her to marry me. She said no."

"I'm sorry, Henry!" Emma said, and when Vic mumbled something, "Vic's sorry too."

"So we came home. Walt married Martha. I opened the Pony. A couple years went by and she called me and asked if I would meet her in Seattle. She had arranged it so that she had a couple days layover between her flight to South America. So I went, and we had nothing in common. We could not even talk to each other anymore. After a really awkward couple of hours, she told me that she was sorry she bothered me. End of story."

 _Except it wasn't. And what he'd said was only partially true. He hadn't gone to Seattle. Cady had fallen off her pony that weekend and broken her arm. Lucian had gone away with Lark, and wasn't answering his phone. Walt was on duty, and he and Martha were both frantic over Cady. Henry had called and cancelled, and the conversation had not been pleasant. Several weeks later, he had gotten a phone call from South America. The chopper that his lady was a passenger in, had crashed. She had him listed as her emergency contact, he had no idea why. She was dead, and he had always wondered if maybe they would have worked things out._

"Marry Emma. You _promise_ me! Don't be stupid like Walt and me. You _promise!_ I know you love her!" Vic burst out, and he understood everything she said.

"I promise I will marry Emma in the spring, and you can be a bridesmaid and Walt will be my best man." Henry said. "You just save your strength." He saw Emma's eyes in the mirror again and wished he could at least wipe the tears from her face.

"She's unconscious." Emma whispered a few minutes later.

Henry swiped at his face. He may not have anything to offer her but himself - but he damn well was going to marry Emma if she would have him. Poor traumatized Vic was going to die alone. He was going to break Walt's nose when he saw him.

Violet gave up. It was cold as hell and snowing like a bitch. Her wrecker _would not_ start. Her shift was long over. She _supposed_ that she could drag the obnoxious vehicle in the garage and continue working on it, but she wasn't going to. She and Troop had the entire weekend off to spend together. She took the keys to the extra wrecker, wrote a note to Boulin telling him to fix hers, and headed for home.

She was stirring the mutton stew in the crockpot when Troop called. "Coming over the Ridge." He said. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes unless this snow gets worse."

"Call me if you get delayed." Violet said, noticing that she had a message. Well, it was probably Benson, telling her to come back to work. She'd ignore it.

"Ten four, ma'am." He said and laughed. Violet laughed too. They'd been talking about moving in together, and this weekend was going to be an experiment to see if they could stand each other. Violet's daughter had gone back to her husband, and Violet had told her that she couldn't move back in with her again.

She rolled out biscuit dough, and hummed to herself as she worked.

"I should not have finished that thermos of coffee." Troop said to himself. He pulled over and left the car running, intending to make a quick pit stop in the woods. He never even saw Boulin. The blow from the tree limb took him to the ground, and he didn't get up. Boulin snickered, helped himself to Troop's pistol, and drove off in his SUV.

Violet's head felt like it exploded. She grabbed the kitchen counter and sank down in the floor. She _could not_ be having a stroke. Not now, when she and Troop were finally - She thought she was going to be sick. When she finally got her breath, she was on her hands and knees on the floor, and she knew that something bad had happened to Troop. She grabbed her keys and ran out the door.

The snow was almost a white out. She couldn't believe how bad it had gotten in the few minutes since she'd arrived home. It took her three tries to get the wrecker out of the driveway, and she had to make herself slow down. Troop was on the Ridge somewhere. She had to find him. If he'd run the car off the road, the blowing snow would already have covered his tracks.

He _could not_ be dead. She closed her hand around her medicine pouch. She didn't have the sight like Mrs. Nez did. She whipped her cell phone from her pocket, and saw that she had no signal at all. Troop had said fifteen minutes. He drove like a bat out of hell, even in bad weather, so that would be thirty for anybody else. She crept along in the wrecker with her lights flashing. Finally she saw what looked like where a vehicle _might_ have pulled off the road. She pulled her coat tighter around her, slid her hand on her gun in her pocket, and got out. The snow was coming down so hard that she could barely see. She took a few hesitant steps toward the woods, and then under the trees, she saw the tracks. Large tracks. Troop had _huge_ feet. It looked like somebody had followed him. She nearly screamed when she saw him lying in the snow. She ran to him, and struggled to turn him over. His hair was full of blood and it had dripped down his face.

"Troop! You have to get up!' She patted his face. When she didn't get any response, she grabbed his shoulders and started dragging him. She was soaking wet with sweat by the time she got him back to the wrecker. And then, she couldn't lift him into the cab. Frantically, she grabbed the winch cable and wrapped it around his chest. She could use it to pick him up and shove him in the cab. She risked giving him more injury, but if she didn't get him out of the cold, he was going to die.

"Are you going to hang me?" Troop grinned at her, and then looked confused when she burst into tears. "Shit." He said, suddenly realizing that something was _very wrong._

"Troop, please. You have to get in the cab. We're going to freeze to death."

He managed to sit up, but he couldn't get to his feet. She saw him struggling, then realized he'd worked it out. "Run the winch." He said, "If you can't get me inside with that, you _leave_ me. You're soaked. I'm not having you die because of me."

Violet activated the winch, and as it pulled Troop forward, he grabbed the side of the door and used the tension on the cable to pull himself upright. She stopped the winch and ran around and pushed him into the cab. He was wheezing for breath. As she unhooked the winch cable from his chest, she looked at him worriedly. "Did I break some ribs?"

He shook his head, and she knew that he wouldn't have told her the truth if she had. "Violet." He fumbled, but finally caught her hand. "I love you." He looked confused for a second, then said, "I don't know what the hell happened, but I do know I love you. I'm sorry, you're going to have to find us some shelter. I'm not going to be much help."

"It's ok, Troop." She patted his shoulder. All she wanted to do was fold him in her arms and cry. She shut the truck door carefully , and recoiled the winch cable. Now _all_ she had to do was drive them back to her house in this snow, and _then_ manage to drag him inside. There were a few houses on the Ridge, but they all had long, winding driveways, and there was no way she could drive up them in this weather. And this wasn't _her_ wrecker. It didn't handle exactly the same as hers did.

She kept her hand on her medicine pouch as she carefully turned around. Troop was either passed out or asleep. Or _dead._ She didn't dare check to see.If she didn't get out of these wet clothes and warm herself up, she was going to be dead as well. She tried the radio, but all she got was static. And then it took all of her skill and concentration to keep the truck on the road.

Twenty seven minutes later, she pulled into her driveway, and she had exactly no idea how she had gotten them there. She couldn't see two feet in front of the truck, the snow was coming down so hard. "Troop, honey?" she shook him gently. He groaned, loudly. "Honey, I'm sorry. We have to get in the house." She shook him again, and got no response at all.

She got out of the truck and opened the door to the house. It was warm and toasty inside with the wood stove going. She would have to mop up the blowing snow after she got Troop inside. She wrenched the truck door open, and folded her arms around Troop and dragged him out. He was a dead weight and they crashed into the snow. She wiggled out from under him and grabbed his arms and dragged him. Up the stairs and across the porch and inside. Her chest hurt so badly she could hardly breathe. She slammed the door shut and locked it. She had to get both of them out of their wet clothes and warmed up.

She seemed to be moving in slow motion, but she finally got out of her clothes, ran into the bathroom and fiercely toweled herself dry. She was still shaking. She yanked all the bedding off her bed, made a pallet in the middle of the kitchen floor. As soon as she had Troop stripped and dried off, she dragged him there and covered him up with every blanket she had. She sat the crockpot of stew on the stove to keep it warm. She made herself a cup of tea from the kettle of hot water that was always on the stove, chugged it down, and then crawled under the covers with Troop. She rubbed his hands and his feet. His head needed stitches. But she just couldn't do anything else right now. She went to sleep from sheer exhaustion.

She woke up and tended the fire and checked Troop's wound, and carefully cleaned it. It was just seeping a little bit and she didn't know if she had the stomach to sew it up. And if he woke up and started fighting her, it would be a disaster. She found them some socks, and a huge pair of mittens for Troop, grabbed two of her knitted hats and shoved one down on Troop's head, taking care not to bump his wound. She should have done that in the first place, but she was so scared and so cold that she couldn't think.

There was plenty of wood on the enclosed back porch, along with a fifty five gallon barrel of water that she could use for wash water and flushing the toilet. Bottled water for drinking. Enough food for her and Troop for at least two weeks. And ammo. She had plenty of ammo. Growing up on the Rez with no electricity, she knew how to survive.

Whoever had hurt Troop - She stopped. It _had_ to be Boulin. But why? Why now?

 _The message on her phone._ She grabbed it, but the phone was dead. The combination of cold and wet must have completely killed it. She gave up and went back to sleep.

Troop carefully reached and touched the knit hat on his head. He was wearing a huge pair of fuzzy mittens, and nice thick warm fuzzy socks. _And nothing else._ He grinned in spite of himself. "Are we being kinky, honey?"

"What? What?" Violet struggled to open her eyes. "You're awake!"

He noted the strain on her face and he could tell she'd been crying. "Did I get shot?"

When he tried to probe his wound, she took his hand firmly. "Leave it alone. It's stopped bleeding. I was afraid to try and sew it."

"Somebody hit me." He was thinking it thru, she saw. "Boulin."

"But why now?" Violet asked him.

"Damn if I know. How did you find me?"

"Mrs. Nez told me where you were." She swiped at her eyes. "I had a message on my phone and I thought it was Benson calling me to come back to work, so I ignored it. I'm so sorry Troop. It might have been important. Boulin might have gone on a rampage. He could have hurt a lot of people -" she choked.

Troop did not believe that Mrs. Nez had had anything to do with Violet finding him. It had just been pure dumb luck, for which he was grateful. "Honey, it's the first weekend you've ever had off as far as I know. Don't kick yourself over it. What time is it?"

Violet shrugged. "I don't know, I'm sorry. I don't have a clock. My phone's dead. I tried to call for help but the radio wouldn't work either."

"We rely too much on technology." Troop said, thinking. His cell phone had been in the console of his SUV, which was now God knows where.

"Troop, you ok?" Violet asked worriedly.

"I was just wondering how I'm going to get my grandfather clock up the stairs and into your house." It was a family heirloom and he wouldn't part with it.

Violet looked at him and then she laughed. "I love you so much. Are you sure you're ok?"

"As you have told me before, I have a damn hard head." He grinned at her. "I'm hungry. I smell mutton stew."

Henry breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled into the hospital's emergency entrance. He had feared for awhile that all of them were going to die out in the storm. It had taken everything he had just to keep the jeep in the road. He and Emma helped two orderlies haul the sled out of the jeep, and they just sat it on a gurney and ran straight into surgery. Only part of the lights were on and they were operating on emergency power. He realized that Emma had gone back out to the jeep, and she came in the door with the leashed dogs.

"I'm not letting them freeze to death." She said, at the look on his face. "And K-9 is a certified therapy dog, he has permission to be here."

"We need to check their paws for frostbite again." Henry said, squeezing her arm as he went by. "I will move the jeep so that it is out of the way."

He came back inside, and Emma was in a treatment room with the dogs. One of the nurses was looking at K-9's feet. Emma was checking Bullet's, and another nurse was trying to take Emma's vitals.

"Emma." Henry said, sitting down her duffel bag from the jeep. "You need to get in some dry clothes. Let the nurse check _you_ out. We have both done too much today, we are not as young as we used to be." When she started to protest, he said, "For me, please."

"Only if you let her look at you first." Emma said. "Bullet cut his paws." She looked like she was going to start crying.

"Sit down Henry." The nurse who was trying to take Emma's vitals said. She gestured to the bed next to Emma's. "Let me bandage Bullet's feet first so that Emma will calm down. Her blood pressure is probably thru the roof."

Henry sat down next to Emma instead, and took his hand in hers. Bullet whined and tried to lick her face when she started crying. Henry shifted the dog so that he could hold him while the nurse bandaged his feet.

"Both of you need to rest." The older nurse said. When Emma started to protest, she said, "Emma, every nurse and orderly in this hospital knows that it was _you_ and Doc Bloomfield who got us our last pay raise. _Nobody_ will put your dogs out or say anything about them being here. I'm overdue for my lunch break. I'll sit with them while you and Henry get a shower and into some dry clothes. Then we'll all have something to eat."

"We had a good dinner. Henry cooked." Emma choked out. Everybody in the county knew that making a sandwich was the extent of her culinary skills.

"Honey, it's two in the morning." The nurse said, looking at her worriedly. "Henry." She pointed at a room across the hall.

"I don't have any dry clothes." Henry said.

Emma hopped off the bed and thrust some clothes from her duffel bag at him. "Try these." She said.

The water was warm, not hot, but it still felt pretty good. Henry didn't dare take the thirty minute shower he wanted. He didn't know how long the auxiliary power was going to last. He needed to go help the maintenance man, and see what they needed to do about keeping the generator going and monitoring snow load on the roof. But first, he'd check on Emma and the dogs. And find out about Vic. He was afraid that Emma was going to completely lose it when she died.

Emma was asleep in a chair in the waiting room with the dogs curled around her. She'd made them a bed on the floor. K-9 thumped his tail at Henry, and seemed to be inquiring why he hadn't joined them earlier.

"I told you to get some rest." The older nurse hissed at Henry as he headed down the hallway.

"I need to help the maintenance man." Henry said.

"He's asleep. You need to leave him alone." The nurse said. "One of the orderlies is monitoring everything. I'm sure we'll all have to help once it gets daylight. Go try and get Emma to lie down."

"Vic?"

"Doc Bloomfield is doing everything he can, but it's not good, and you know it."

"Come on, Emma." Henry said, shaking her gently. "If you sleep in that chair, you will not be able to walk in the morning."

Her eyes filled with tears, and she hugged him hard.

"Make room, guys." Henry said to the dogs, and he and Emma joined them on the bed she'd made in the floor.

Neither one of them really went to sleep, and K-9 didn't either, though Bullet snored loudly. When Doc Bloomfield stepped into the waiting room, both of them sat up instantly. The look on his face made Emma moan out loud, and she grabbed Henry's arm.

"She's alive, but I don't know how." Doc Bloomfield said. "I lost her twice on the table, but we got her heart started back. She's in really bad shape." He looked as exhausted as they were, and Emma scrambled to her feet and hugged him.

"Thank you." She said, "I know you did all you could."

"Emma -" he stopped, seemed to be searching for words. "She's not going to make it. There's no way she can -" tears started leaking from his eyes.

"I think we knew that when we found her." Henry said, pulling Emma back to him gently. "But we do appreciate you trying. And you need to get some rest."

Walt had taken Ferg's phone and gone to help Mathias. He had left Ferg in the office manning communications, against his objections. Mark Arrow was trapped on the Rez, trying to help Rick clear a multi car accident that had occurred in the blinding snow. Luckily, no fatalities or serious injuries, just mangled cars blocking the roadway. Eammon was shuttling elderly folks to the shelter at the church since the power was out. Walt couldn't pull anyone off their duties and he really didn't want to. He fully intended to kill Boulin if Mathias didn't beat him to it.

Walt found Boulin's abandoned wrecker and then Mathias's SUV off the side of the road a few miles past Vic's truck. And then he got out and tracked on foot for awhile and completely lost the trail. He narrowly made it back to the Bronco and knew that he had to find some shelter. He crept along at a crawl with all his lights blinking. No one besides law enforcement, or idiots, should be out in this mess. He finally saw the sign for Benson's garage. It had a woodstove, and he knew where the key was hidden. He had to get warm. As much as he wanted to find Boulin and do right by Vic, if he froze to death, it would be for nothing.

Walt looked at Violet's wrecker and Troop's SUV parked outside the garage. Well, if he interrupted them, he was sorry. But he was damn about to freeze to death. He had to get warm. Boulin had to have holed up somewhere himself.

"Violet!" Walt called as he fought his way in the door. The gusting wind and snow blinded him and nearly took him to his knees, and he struggled to close the door.

"Well, hello, Walt." A voice said, and he froze. What in the hell had Boulin done to Violet and Troop?

"Come on in and get warm before I kill you." Boulin chuckled.

The SOB had him dead to rights and he had on body armor. Walt didn't know how he was going to stay alive long enough to get a head shot. And his hands were so damn cold that he didn't think he could pull his gun. He _had_ to take Boulin out before the deranged bastard killed anybody else. If he died - well if he died, he'd had a pretty good life. _He was never going to hear Vic laugh again._ He nearly choked. He didn't know if Henry had found her. She might already be dead. Wounded and out in this storm, she didn't stand much of a chance.

And Cady. He'd been so scared when Blackjack had fallen on her, but he just couldn't get the words out to tell her how much he loved her and how proud of her he was. The two women he cared most about in the world. He'd failed both of them.

"It was always Cady." Boulin snorted. "I'd have had her the first night if that damn Mathias hadn't come along. And then she goes and gets herself hurt so that there's always someone around. I'm really going to hate having to kill Emma."

"Emma has never done anything to you." Walt said, thinking, _"Keep him talking. Maybe some back up will get here."_

Boulin grinned at him, and just like that, Walt knew he was going to die. He wasn't going to be fast enough. The two shots merged together. Boulin's head seemed to explode, and a spray of bloody mist coated the walls. The noise was so intense that his ears rang, and he hit the floor and rolled, feeling the blood start to pour down his face. He couldn't see, couldn't get his gun up, and he dimly heard somebody yelling, but he couldn't make out the words.

Someone was standing over Boulin with a pistol in their hands, and at first he thought that it was Omar, but then he realized that it was a blonde woman. _Vic?_ No, poor Vic was dead, and he'd let her down. This woman put her pistol against Boulin and squeezed the trigger, again and again. Walt watched Boulin's body jerk and shudder like a puppet on a string. He wanted to tell the woman to stop, that she was lucky she hadn't caused a ricochet, but he was afraid she might shoot _him._ And he didn't know if it was her or Boulin that had shot him in the first place. The woman was still squeezing the trigger, but Walt figured that she must have run out of ammo, the body wasn't jerking anymore, He didn't know if she had another weapon.

One of his deputies would come. _Ferg._ He could tell Ferg to tell Cady and Vic that he loved them and he was sorry. He just had to stay alive long enough for Ferg to get there.

He heard yelling and a loud commotion, but it was all just muffled noise. His ears were still ringing and his head hurt so badly he needed to be sick. But he was still trying to stay off the woman's radar. She hadn't even seemed to have noticed him.

Then Mathias burst thru the door, and from the look of horror on his face, Walt figured that half of his head must be gone and he just couldn't feel it. More yelling, and Inez came in, and Mathias yelled _at her_!

"Don't you yell at _me!_ " Inez shot back at him. "I QUIT! I am never doing this again." The two of them were watching the woman, but neither of them touched her.

More yelling, and Harv burst thru the door. He went straight to the woman and relieved her of her gun and started patting her down.

"Dammit." Mathias said. "I should just fire you right now!" They had _both_ disobeyed his orders to stay outside.

Inez bent down over Walt and ripped her fanny pack open. Harv handcuffed the woman.

Gritting his teeth, Mathias went to check the office. He was almost certain that he was going to find Troop and Violet's bodies, and he knew that Inez couldn't handle that. He wasn't so sure if he could, himself.

"Hey, Matt!" Harv called from the service bay. "Violet wrote a note on the blackboard that says she took the extra wrecker and went home. Hers is broke down."

"Please." Inez said, as she tried to tape some gauze around Walt's head. She had been terrified that Violet and Troop were in the office, dead. She was crying so hard she couldn't see, and Harve took over for her, gently placing her hand in Walt's, and giving Walt a look that said he had _better not_ complain.

"Troop's vehicle is almost full of gas!" Mathias yelled from outside. Harv's truck was nearly empty, and it would take too long to get the gas pump at the garage thawed and working. He had to get Walt to the hospital. He was afraid that Inez was going to go into shock, and the woman shooter was unpredictable. He grabbed a roll of crime scene tape and strung it in front of the garage. He knew what had happened, but he would still have to explain to the Feds later. If there _was_ a later. It was going to be a bitch getting to the hospital.

Mathias turned the SUV around and left it running. The smart thing to do was hole up here and wait it out, but Walt would die without medical attention. He might die anyway. For all they knew, he had a bullet lodged in his head. Harve handcuffed the shooter, who appeared to be in shock, to the restraints welded in the frame. He and Mathias hauled Walt out to the car with Inez struggling along behind.

As they inched along down the road, Harve said, "Blip the siren a couple times." When Mathias shot him a look that said he was nuts, he continued, "The sound may carry. It might keep somebody from hitting us." Mathias already had all the emergency lights going.

They finally reached the hospital. Harve had repeatedly tried the radio, but it was nothing but static. After they rushed Walt inside, Inez sat down in a chair next to Emma in the hall, and Emma reached and took her hand. "All I ever wanted was to be a cop." Inez said, and started crying.

"And now all you want to do is stay home and have your baby." Emma said gently.

"How did you -"

"When the cows first get pregnant, their eyes go soft. Women's do too. And you've had your hand on your stomach since you came in here."

"What am I going to do?"

"I'm sure Bill is thrilled."

"I haven't told him yet. And I quit. I was so scared and mad."

"It'll be ok, Inez. I'm sure that Matty will let you stay in the office and run communications if you want."

Harve brought in a handcuffed woman, and gently herded her down the hall.

"That's Arista Millen." Emma said, shocked.

" I should know who she is?"

"Boulin killed her daughter."

"She killed _him."_

"Well, good for her. Poor woman. I hope it brought her some peace." Emma said. "I thought they had her locked up somewhere. She went nuts after her daughter died."

"I don't want to do this anymore." Inez said, and started crying. " I want Bill. I want to go home." Then, embarrassed, "I'm sorry!"

"Stay right there." Emma said sternly. She walked up to the nurses desk, where Mathias was having a discussion with two of them.

"Don't you yell at me too." Mathias said.

"Could one of you please check Inez and make sure she's ok?" Emma asked the older nurse. "She's pregnant. Six or eight weeks, I'd guess. I think she's too stubborn to go to bed, but maybe you could stick her in the Peds ward and tell her she's helping out?"

"Shit." Mathias said, his face losing color. "That's why she –"

Emma walked over and hugged him. "I love you, Matty."

"I love you too, Emma." Mathias said, hugging her back. The strain of the long night had been almost too much to bear.

"Rose and Omar will be fine." Emma said. At the look on his face, "Well Rose may wind up cooking his guests, but she and Omar will be fine."

That at least got a partial smile from him. Inez was herded off to the Peds ward, and Mathias went outside to monitor the snow load on the roof, even though he'd been told one of the orderlies was already doing it.

When Walt tried to sit up in the bed, Henry said, "I swear, you and Emma are going to be the death of me. Be still. You've got a concussion and about forty stitches in your head."

"Vic?" Walt choked out, feeling the tears start to leak down his face.

"She is alive, Walt, but she is hurt very badly."

"I need to -"

Henry pushed him back down gently. "You need to stay in bed. Poor Doc Bloomfield is about to have a stroke. He is very upset about Vic. You do not need to add to his stress level."

Walt looked around, and said, "The power's out."

"We are having the blizzard from hell. The one a few weeks back was just a warm up. Emma is so worried about the ranch that she is almost sick."

"Is Mathias still here?"

"He is helping the maintenance man. He is younger than any of us and good on his feet. We have been hoisting him up on the roof every hour to blow the snow off."

"How much?"

"We already had fifteen inches by the time Emma and I got here. It keeps getting worse and we need to keep clearing the roof as long as we can."

"He can't fire Inez." Walt mumbled, almost to himself.

"Inez is in the Peds ward." At the look of panic on Walt's face, Henry said, "There are some terrified children that have no parents here. Doc Bloomfield said that she and the baby are fine, but he wanted her to stay in bed. She is helping entertain the children."

Several days later, Mrs. Nez was sitting on one side of Vic's bed, and Cady on the other, both of them holding Vic's hands. Vic was dying. Walt was standing, looking out the window, but they could all see the tears pouring down his face. Mathias had both of his hands on Cady's shoulders, offering silent comfort. Cady listened to Mrs. Nez chanting, and suddenly she wasn't in the hospital anymore. She was in her jeep, driving. She turned into the driveway at the Walker's house. It _was_ the Walker's house, but it _wasn't._ The house had been painted and it had a new roof. There was a nice new barn and corral to the side of the house. Mathias was leading the cutest little boy she'd ever seen in her life around the yard on Smokey.

"MAMA!" the little boy yelled, spying her getting out of the car. He slid/fell off the horse and Mathias caught him and laughed, setting him on his feet.

"Hey baby." Cady said, picking up her son. He looked just like Mathias, but he had her eyes. Was that even possible?

"Hey mama." Mathias said, grinning at her, and laying his hand on her stomach. "I thought you weren't going to pick him up anymore." Smokey whuffled, low in his throat, that noise he made just for her. And everything was just perfect.

Cady blinked, and she was back in the hospital room. Vic was dying, and nothing Mrs. Nez said or did would change that. This was one of the times when life just really sucked.

Mathias pushed her wheelchair out to his SUV and one of the orderlies helped her inside and stowed the chair in the back. Mathias thanked him before he got in the car. His ribs were really bothering him though he would never have admitted it. It seemed like such a small thing when Walt was seriously hurt and Vic was dying.

"Dad will never tell Vic that he loves her." Cady said suddenly.

"I wondered how much of that you understood." Mathias said.

"I think there must be something wrong with him. I don't think he ever even told Mom that he loved her. And poor Vic is going to die." Cady choked.

"Cady." Mathias slowed down, took her good hand in his, and said gently, "I love you."

"I love you too, Matty. So much." She started sobbing.

"Honey, I'm sorry. I can't stop. We'll get stuck."

"I know." Cady choked. Now that it had started snowing, it didn't seem like it stopped for more than a few hours. She swiped at her eyes. "I really want that little boy."

Mathias didn't take his eyes off the road, but he smiled. "And we'll have him. It'll just take awhile."

When he stopped at Rose's house, Omar came out and carried Cady inside, and then helped Mathias with her wheelchair. "Mathias, you need to be in bed yourself." He said worriedly.

"We were going to go to our house." Mathias started. "But if I get a call, I can't leave her by herself." He glanced at Rose asleep on the couch.

"Sometimes -" Omar stopped. "Sometimes." He sighed, looked as if he was going to start crying. "Life just really sucks."

"Yeah." Mathias agreed. "If I have to go?"

"I'll look after them." Omar said, glancing at Rose worriedly.

Mathias went and got in bed with Cady. They had taken Vic off the respirator and everyone knew she wasn't going to make it thru the night.

It was raining. Vic felt the drops on her face. And God, she must be drunk again, passed out, outside. She hurt so badly she felt like she'd been run over by a truck. She must have gotten beat up again. Had she tried to save another chicken?

And then she heard his voice. "I lost Martha. And then you came along." She thought he tried to laugh, but it was more of a sob that came out. "You were so tiny. And so damn funny. I never thought anybody could out cuss Emma, but some of the things that came out of your mouth -" Walt bit his hand and sobbed. "I never wanted to love anybody again because it just hurt so damn much when -" he stopped, took a ragged breath. "I'm sorry I'm such a damn fool Vic. I'm sorry I let you down. I'm sorry that I was too much of a coward to tell you how much I love you." He laid his head down on the bed, and he was crying so hard he was shaking.

Vic slowly, carefully, laid her hand on his head. "Ov ooo too." She said tiredly.

"Vic?" Walt sat up and looked at her unbelievingly. "Vic!" He started to grab her, evidently thought better of it, and ran to the door. "DOCTOR!"

An entire crew must have been standing in the hall right outside the door because everyone tried to pour thru the door at once. Vic thought there was a herd of nurses, and half of them were crying.

Doc Bloomfield checked her vitals with the tears streaming down his face. "Thank you God, and Mrs. Nez." He said.

Vic had no idea what Mrs. Nez had done, but figured she would have to ask later. She was going to have to stop rescuing chickens. This getting the shit beat out of her was getting awfully old.

A week later, Walt was sitting by Vic's bed and she was laughing at a My Three Sons rerun on the tv. Sheriff Wilkins came in and started talking to Walt. Walt didn't like it that he ignored Vic, but she gave his hand a gentle squeeze and kept watching her program.

Mathias stepped into the room, "Hey, Vic!" He said cheerfully.

"This is a private conversation." Sheriff Wilkins barked.

"I just wanted to drop these muffins off for Vic." Mathias said easily. "Cady made them this morning. Omar's bringing her and Mom by this afternoon, and I think I heard something about cherry tarts. You have a good day, hon." Grinning at Vic. Then he glanced at Walt, "Can I get you anything?"

The look that Vic gave Walt plainly said, " _You better do something, buster, and do it now, or I am getting out of this bed and kicking some ass."_ Neither one of them was capable of wrestling a kitten at the moment though.

"Wilkins, you know Mathias Clark, don't you?" Walt asked. Mathias had sat the muffins down on the table and started to leave. "Matt and my daughter Cady are getting married and I couldn't be happier."

The look of utter shock on Mathias's face almost made Walt laugh out loud, and then he remembered what Boulin had said. Cady would be dead if not for Mathias.

Wilkins was almost as shocked as Mathias, and Vic was beaming.

Walt cleared his throat, looked at Mathias. "I'm very proud that my daughter chose such a good man."

The look on Mathias's face turned to horror. "See ya." He said, and bolted down the hall.

Vic started laughing. Walt looked at Wilkins. "One of these days I will be able to get up. If you ever disrespect Mathias like that again, I'll kick your ass."

"Did you just threaten me?" Wilkins bluffed.

Vic gave him a disgusted look. It was really hard for her to talk, and she usually slurred her words, but when she got mad enough, she could speak clearly. "Drugs." She said, looking at Walt. Walt laughed out loud. He had no idea how many drugs he had flowing thru his system, but he knew _exactly_ what he'd said.

It took Vic several tries, but she picked up her hand and pointed at the door. "Go. NOW." She said to Wilkins.

"I believe you have been dismissed, Sheriff." Doc Bloomfield said from the doorway. "I told you you could have a civilized conversation, not be a jackass."

Wilkins opened his mouth, closed it, gave Walt a confused look, and left.

"Well," Doc Bloomfield said, taking Walt's pulse. "Mathias thinks you're dying. What in the hell did you do now, Walt?"

Vic laughed so hard that she got choked, which terrified Walt.

"You two are going to be the death of _me_. I told Mathias he couldn't leave until he'd calmed down." Bloomfield said. "Walt, what in the hell _did_ you do?"

"Nice." Vic finally got out, and beamed at Doc Bloomfield.

"Walt said something nice and Mathias thinks he's dying. That sounds about right."

Walt could hear several of the nurses laughing in the hallway. "I'm not _that_ bad." He protested.

The look that Vic shot him said otherwise.

"Vic, you want milk or orange juice to go with your muffins?" Doc Bloomfield asked. It amazed Walt that he took on so much of Vic's care himself. He'd told Walt that he didn't know if she had six weeks, or six months, or if she would outlive all of them, but that Walt would damn well be good to her, or he would kick his ass himself. Walt hadn't needed the reminder.

"Juice." Vic finally got out, then looked confused.

"Rose is bringing you some fresh milk this afternoon. But you have to try and eat your lunch, or no pie, ok?"

"Kay." Vic said, and grinned.

Several weeks later, Nighthorse walked into the Red Pony. He told himself that he'd come just because it was the right thing to do, to support the community. He could certainly afford to buy a damn pie to help the Werner's out. It had nothing to do with the fact that Emma had threatened to kick his butt if he didn't show up. In front of his head of security, no less. Jacob didn't think Leo liked him very much, and he was well aware of the fact that Leo thought he was a wuss. He needed to start going back to the gym.

He saw Millicent first thing, and she looked so disappointed. She had been waiting on somebody else. And then he realized that Henry was auctioning off _Millicent's pie_. And nobody was bidding. Whoever was _supposed_ to buy it hadn't shown up, and the poor kid was starting to cry.

"Two hundred fifty dollars." Jacob said. He heard some gasps, got some disapproving looks, but Millicent lit up like a light bulb. Well, if he'd made the kid happy, the hell with everybody else.

He should have asked somebody how this damn thing worked. He'd thought he could just go in and buy the pie, which he had no intention of eating, and leave. Evidently, now he had to sit with Millicent and eat some of it. And Millicent was sitting at a table near the back that had a large placard that read "Reserved for Walking Wounded" on it. Where Cady, Vic, and Walt were sitting, along with assorted family members. Evidently, Henry had saved Millicent's pie to be auctioned last.

"Come join us, Jacob." Cady said, trying to slide her chair.

"Cady, stop." Mathias said, and winced himself as he tried to move her chair.

"Both of you, stop." Jeanne said. Lane laughed, and just picked up Cady, chair, and all, and moved her right next to Mathias.

"Sit here, Jacob." Lane said, sliding a chair in between Cady and Millicent. "If poor Jill gets here, she can have my seat. I've already eaten too much pie, I'll have to run an extra mile tomorrow."

"Coffee, Jacob?" Emma asked him. When he nodded, she sat a cup in front of him, and whispered in his ear, " _Thank you."_ For about half a second he thought she was actually going to _kiss_ him, but she just winked at him instead. "Anybody want ice cream?" she asked.

"Lark, what are you going to do with yourself?" Kel asked from an adjoining table.

"I'm going to help Cady a little until she gets back on her feet. Then I might open my own law practice and put Dow out of business." She looked at Lucian, who was shoveling pie in his mouth, "Or maybe Luce and I will have a baby."

Lucian's fork hit the floor with a clatter, and the expression of sheer horror on his face had everyone at the table laughing.

"Just seeing if you were paying attention, darling." Lark said, and kissed him.

Emma got him a clean fork and kissed the top of his head. "We do love you, you old coot." She said.

She and Lucian missed the look that Lark shot her way, but Cady and Mathias did not. They grinned at each other, and realized that Vic had noticed too. Lark was _jealous_.

Vic put her hand on Walt's knee under the table, and he caught her hand in his and kissed it, and just sat their entwined hands down on top of the table. Vic beamed at him. Cady nearly choked on the coffee that she'd just swallowed, and Mathias gave her an "I don't believe this" look.

"I'm too late, aren't I?" Nighthorse looked up to see Doc Ramsey coming in the door. "I'm so sorry, Millicent."

"Mr. Nighthorse bought my pie. He paid _two hundred and fifty dollars_ for it!" Millicent said.

"Thank you, Mr. Nighthorse." Doc Ramsey said formally. She was so exhausted, she looked like she was going to fall over.

"Jill, sit down and eat some pie. What kind do you want?" Emma asked.

"Here." Lane caught her arm, and sat her in his chair, which put her next to Lucian, and opposite Nighthorse and Millicent. "I need to go talk to Travis about a bull anyway."

"Have some pie, Doc Ramsey." Nighthorse said. He did not want to hurt Millicent's feelings, but he hadn't eaten dessert in years.

"Are you sure?" she asked quietly, and looked at him like he'd just asked her out on a date, and she thought he was joking.

"Please, help Milly and I eat this pie." Jacob said, and smiled at her. She was so exhausted that she was almost shaking, and she'd still tried to keep a promise she'd evidently made to Millicent.

"Jill, do you want a sandwich?" Emma asked, sitting down glasses of milk for her and Millicent. "Have you had anything to eat today?"

"I'm fine, thanks." Jill said, and slid the pie server into the pie and cut huge pieces. Jacob almost groaned out loud. That stuff looked awful. There was no way he was going to be able to eat it.

"Thank you." He said when she handed him his plate.

She and Millicent dug right in. Jacob hesitantly picked up his fork and took a small bite. He had _no_ idea what it was, some kind of blend of caramel and vanilla, and pecans, he thought. It was heavenly. He thought he could eat the whole damn pie.

"Wow, Millicent, this is really good!" he said.

She grinned at him. "Thank you, Mr. Nighthorse."

Jacob told himself that he was getting up to leave anyway, and it wasn't the fact that Lucian had kicked the shit out of him under the table, that made him get up with Doc Ramsey.

"Let me walk you to your truck." He said.

She gave him an exasperated look, but she was so tired he didn't know how she was even standing.

"Are you sure you're alright to drive home?" he asked her.

"Thank you for buying Millicent's pie." She said again. "I couldn't have paid that much for it and it really meant a lot to her."

"Why don't you take it?" he held it out to her. "You have people who work for you who can eat it, if you don't want it."

"You don't eat pie?"

"No, actually I -" he stopped. He didn't like the way she was looking at him.

"When have you done anything just because you enjoyed it?" she asked.

"I -" _Damn if he could remember._

"You're a city man, Mr. Blankenship. If you ever knew how to be an Indian, you've forgotten how." She looked like she was going to punch him. "Thanks to you and your damn casino, the Werner's are going to lose their home."

"I have nothing to do with -" How in the heck did she know what his name had been before he changed it? Did everyone on the Rez know? Were they all laughing at him behind his back?

"If that damn casino hadn't been built, nobody would want their ranch. It wouldn't matter that Kenda is _a little_ behind on her payments. The bank will put her off and sell the land for a fortune, and they'll stack damn condos or something on good grazing land. That's a crying shame."

Jacob had never struck a woman in his life, but he had the sudden urge to smash that pie right in her face. And then kiss it off - he had lost his damn mind. He was pretty sure that Doc Ramsey could mop the parking lot with his butt if she got a mind to. She was a small woman, but all muscle, and he spent far too much time behind a desk these days.

Suddenly she just looked like she was going to cry. "I'm sorry. I've had a bad day, and I have no right to take it out on you."

The thought of her crying terrified Jacob more than the thought of her kicking his butt. He knew he needed to say something, but he had no idea what. It had never bothered him before that a lot of the people here didn't like him. Oh, there were the ones who cozied up to him because he made money for them, and the women who were more interested in his house and his bank account than him, but he didn't think he'd had a friend in years. And almost everyone loved Doc Ramsey, though truthfully he thought a lot of people were a little afraid of her.

"Here, take this pie. I'll never eat it." He said, as she opened her truck door. It took her two tries to get up in the cab. Jacob knew he needed to help her, but he figured that if he tried, she'd punch him in the face.

"Mama, where are we going to go?" he heard a voice say, and he glanced over to see the Werner's heading for their truck. He quickly looked back at Doc Ramsey, and she just gave him a look that somehow managed to be sad and disgusted at the same time.

"Thank you for the pie, Jacob. And thank you for being kind to Millicent." She said.

"I like Millicent." He said, surprised that it was true.

"She's a good kid." Doc Ramsey gave him a look that plainly said she didn't have a clue why she was even talking to him, and closed her door.

Nighthorse stood and watched her drive out of the parking lot, and then he went to his own truck. Halfway home, because of a teenager's tears, he told himself, and _not_ the look on Doc Ramsey's face, he made a phone call and insured that the Werner's would not lose their ranch. He went to bed, tried to go to sleep, gave up and went into his gym. He worked out like a maniac for half an hour, thought he was going to collapse. He was too out of shape. He took a shower, looked at his bed, and wished that Doc Ramsey was in it. He hadn't eaten dessert in years. Evidently, sugar made him crazy. He went in the kitchen, poured himself a glass of juice that he didn't touch, and spent the rest of the night with his head propped on his hands at the counter.

After everyone had left, Emma grabbed Henry and they wound up in the floor behind the bar. "Goodness, Emma, do you plan to have your way with me?" he asked her.

"I hope so."

"There's something I need to tell you." Henry said, completely deadpan. When Emma looked at him quizzically, "I have never done this before."

He loved the way her laughter just bubbled out. "Well, darlin', we may be in trouble, because I think I've forgotten how." She said.

He picked her up and ran for the stairs. "Henry, put me down, you're going to hurt yourself!"

Halfway up the stairs, he was laughing as hard as she was, and he nearly dropped her. They fell on the bed, and then they didn't need to say anything at all.

A long, long time later, Emma started to say something, and then stopped.

"You want a sandwich? I think I could eat a whole cow." Henry said.

"Did we lock the door?"

Now that she said that, he _had_ heard the door open. He jumped to his feet.

"Henry!" Emma grabbed his arm.

"Stay here." He said, knowing she wouldn't.

"Here." She handed him a revolver from her purse, and he nearly started laughing again. Especially when she pulled on his t-shirt, _inside out,_ and produced another gun from her purse. She was sexy as hell, and she didn't even know it.

He walked slowly down the stairs, with her right behind him, and stopped when he saw the bank bag on the floor. He grabbed the baseball bat he kept behind the bar and poked at it, and the strings came open to reveal a wad of cash. As he pulled the bag down, he saw the note on the top, that read, "Hector Lives."

"Henry?"

"I think somebody gave me my money back that Deana stole." Henry said. He went and locked the door, and then sat down in the floor and dumped the bag out. "Help me count this, Emma."

"Forty five thousand dollars." Emma whispered awhile later.

"She took forty." Henry said, almost to himself. "l will give the extra to Jess and Kenda." Then he looked at Emma. "Marry me."

"I don't want to wait until spring."

"We will go to Mrs. Nez in the morning and have the wedding that I promised Vic later."

"Ok." Emma said, and beamed at him. And Henry felt like everything in the universe was right.

And that folks is,

THE END.


End file.
